SC expresses doubt over validity of NEET ordinance

The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed doubt over validity of the ordinance providing that states could hold their own entrance examination for admission to undergraduate medical courses for the current academic year bypassing the National Eligibility Entrance Test but refused to interfere with its operation. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed doubt over validity of the ordinance providing that states could hold their own entrance examination for admission to undergraduate medical courses for the current academic year bypassing the National Eligibility Entrance Test but refused to interfere with its operation. Refusing to stay the operation of the ordinance as 50 percent of the states have already conducted their own entrance examination for admission to government medical colleges, a bench of Justice Anil R Dave, Justice Shiva Kirti Singh and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, however said: “Prima facie we find that the validity of the ordinance is open to doubt.” NGO Sankalp had moved the top court seeking the stay of the ordinance contending that it was it was a patent exercise of judicial power in the garb of ordinance to put the court decision on hold for one year.A Apparently unhappy with the government taking the ordinance route giving states the option of opting out of NEET for the academic session 2016-2017, the bench said: “That was not warranted. The purpose was uniform test with minimum standards.” Holding that the issuance of an ordinance to derail the court order was not “proper” or a “good practice”, the bench said: “Once NEET became operative, no other exam could have taken place.” Justice Dave said that in view of the order of the court, “this should not have happened”.