Admissions of Non-NEET Students to AYUSH Courses for 2019-20 Regularized as One-Time Measure.

In brief

The question

1. Whether admissions granted to AYUSH students in 2019-20 by private colleges bypassing NEET counseling can be regularized based on subsequent judicial precedents.

The court held

The High Court dismissed the challenge against the 2018 Regulations and the NEET notification but held that all students admitted on or before 15.10.2019 are entitled to have their admissions regularized.

It also directed

The Court ordered the University to declare the results of the students, issue marksheets, and permit them to appear in any scheduled back-paper examinations. The writ petitions were disposed of with the direction that these admissions be treated as regular in light of the Supreme Court’s one-time relaxation.

01Facts

The Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) amended regulations on 07.12.2018, mandating a uniform entrance examination (NEET) for AYUSH undergraduate courses.

pp. 3-4

Several private medical colleges in Uttarakhand admitted students for the 2019-20 academic year bypasssing the NEET counseling process, primarily on the strength of interim orders passed by the High Court.

p. 2, 6

These interim orders specified that admissions were provisional and subject to the final outcome of the writ petitions.

p. 7

Following the Supreme Court’s 2020 judgment in Union of India v. Federation of Self-Financed Ayurvedic Colleges Punjab, which upheld the NEET requirement but allowed a "one-time" relaxation for certain students, the petitioners sought regularization of their admissions, declaration of results, and permission to complete their B.A.M.S. courses.

pp. 4-5, 7

02Issues

i.1. Whether admissions granted to AYUSH students in 2019-20 by private colleges bypassing NEET counseling can be regularized based on subsequent judicial precedents.

pp. 2-3

ii.2. Whether provisional registrations granted under interim orders entitle students to appear in final examinations and have their results declared after several years of study.

p. 3

03Law Applied

The Court applied Section 22 of the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970, which empowers the Council to prescribe minimum standards of education, including the conduct of NEET.

p. 5

The primary precedent was Union of India v. Federation of Self-Financed Ayurvedic Colleges Punjab and others (2020) 12 SCC 115, wherein the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the 2018 NEET-based regulations but exercised its extraordinary powers to grant a one-time relaxation to students admitted before 15.10.2019.

pp. 5-6

The Court also applied the principle of equity regarding students who had pursued courses for several years under the shield of interim judicial orders.

p. 8

Provisions in the judgment · 1

Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970 Section 22

04Reasoning

The Court reasoned that while the legislative competence of the Central Government to mandate NEET for AYUSH courses is now settled law, the specific facts of the 2019-20 batch required an application of the Supreme Court’s one-time relaxation.

¶ 7-8

The University conceded that the students in question possessed minimum qualifications and were admitted before the cutoff date of 15.10.2019.

¶ 8-9

Regarding WPMS No. 207 of 2021, where the University argued the interim order was passed late (February 2021), the Court found that since the actual admission occurred before the 2019 cutoff and the students had already appeared in professional exams, they should not be excluded from the benefit of the Supreme Court's mandate.

¶ 11

The court connected the "peculiar circumstances" identified by the Supreme Court to the current batch to prevent career disruption for students who had nearly completed their degrees.

¶ 11-12