COIMBATORE / MADURAI: In yet another setback to medical admission process in Tamil Nadu this year, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered that status quo be maintained with regard to medical counselling till July 14, the day on which the rank list was scheduled to be released.
This will have a cascading effect on the admissions to other professional courses like engineering and agriculture, where the process is completed only after the medical admission concludes.
Hearing another batch of petitions challenging the State government order reserving 85 per cent of medical seats for candidates from State Board schools, the principal bench of the High Court in Chennai ordered status quo on admissions, on Tuesday.
In this case, K Sibi, a CBSE student from Madurai, had filed a petition before the Madurai Bench through his father, challenging the Government Order earmarking the lion’s share of seats for State Board students.
The GO was issued at the last minute, argued the petitioner, pointing out that the prescribed 85 per cent reservation was against the law laid down by the Supreme Court that reservation should not exceed 50 per cent at any cause. It would affect candidates like him, who scored more than 95 per cent in NEET, he added.
Contending that the GO was in violation of natural justice of reservation, Sibi prayed to the court to quash the order, and to keep a seat for him in any medical college in the State.
Ordering status quo, Justice K Kalyanasundaram adjourned the case to Friday, the day on which merit list for medical seats is to be released.
Officials from the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) said efforts were on to release the merit list on July 14 as scheduled. However, we have to wait for the court order on that day for more clarity before releasing it,” Dr A Edwin Joe, Director of Medical Education, told Express.
As per Medical Council of India (MCI) rules, the last date to complete MBBS/BDS admissions is August 31. “Or else, students will lose attendance,” the DME added.
Any delay in medical admission will have cascading effect on admission to other professional courses like engineering and agriculture.
Usually, the Anna University, the nodal agency for Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission to fill up government quota seats in engineering colleges, commences its counselling only after the start of medical counselling. This is done to ensure that seats in top institutions do not go vacant due to students jumping from engineering course to medical course.
As per the academic schedule fixed by the Supreme Court for engineering admission, Anna University has to complete its counselling process on or before July 20. However, AU, which released the rank list on June 22, is yet to announce counselling schedule.
It is learnt that the State government is planning to file an affidavit in the apex Court seeking extension of time till August 31 to complete engineering counselling process. Anna University is also likely to finalise the counselling in one or two days.
As far as agricultural courses are concerned, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has already completed the first phase of counselling in the third week of June.
Many students who have appeared and selected colleges in the first round of counselling are likely to move to medical colleges when the counselling for the medical courses is held. So, the university was asked to wait till the medical counselling gets over before starting the second phase of counselling.
In the case of law courses, authorities at the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University said the counselling was currently going on and the medical counselling would not have an impact on their counselling.