CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday granted interim stay on the Medical Council of India’s (MCI) notification – which prescribes Single Eligibility-cum-Entrance Examination for admissions to the MBBS and Post Graduate Medical Courses – in Tamil Nadu.
Justice P Jyothimani, while granting the stay on a plea filed by TN government, represented by the Principal Secretary and the Secretary, Health and Family Welfare department, ordered notice to the Union of India and the MCI, New Delhi.
It stated that the notification was unreasonable, unenforceable, arbitrary, illegal, lacked legislative competence and jurisdiction and was violative of Constitutional provisions. The petitioner contended that the impugned notification issued on December 21 last appeared as if the Centre had approved the amendment to the Regulation on Graduate Medical Education 1997. But the Centre, in a letter on January 3 last, declared that it had not. Hence, the regulation on Graduate Medical Education (Amendment) 2010 (Part II) is ab initio void and liable to be set aside. Even though the Centre directed MCI to withdraw the notification, no such step has been taken. Further, the MCI did not provide an opportunity to the respective State governments, including TN, to present their case before amending and notifying the regulations. In TN, a law dispensing with the CET is already in place which directs selection and admission to medical courses based on the marks in qualifying exams and by following the normalisation method.
“There are different streams of education prevailing in different states. Even within TN, there are CBSE, ICSE and State Board Systems having different syllabus, curriculum, board of examinations and awarding marks. While that be so, it is highly arbitrary and illegal to conduct a CET throughout India without reference to the different streams of education prevailing.” It pointed to the appointment of the Dr M Ananthakrishnan committee, which suggested its abolition.
Source: Express News Service