NEET-PG Percentile | Meritorious Students Have Fundamental Right To Pursue Post Graduate Education: MBBS Grads Argue In Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday continued hearing a petition filed by three MBBS graduates, seeking relaxation in the cut-off percentile prescribed this year by the Medical Council of India for admissions to medical colleges through NEET-PG.

The primary contention of the petitioners is that lowering of percentile does not necessarily mean that merit will be compromised, since percentile is different from percentage.

Previously, the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla had expressed its reservations on the 'percentile' system adopted for counselling. It had said that under the current regime, there is scope of many meritorious students being left out merely because they do not fit in the percentile cut-off while the seats in medical colleges go vacant. It had suggested that the examination authority should instead apply the 'percentage' system.

Arguing on the same lines, Advocate Varun Singh, appearing for the petitioners, today submitted that the students appearing for NEET-PG exam are qualified MBBS doctors and by employing the percentile system, the examination authority is putting a doubt on its own education system.

He further contended that by leaving out meritorious students merely on the ground that they do not qualify in the 50 percentile, the authority is violating their fundamental rights. Reliance was placed on Saurabh Chaudhary v. Union of India, 2004 (3) Bom. C.R (S.C) 796, where it was declared that right of meritorious student of his admission is a fundamental right.

"Right of a meritorious student to get admission in a postgraduate course is a fundamental and human right, which, is required to be protected. Such a valuable right cannot be permitted to be whittled down at the instance of less meritorious students," the Bombay High Court had observed.

Singh heavily relied on the Gujarat High Court's judgment in Vinod Pandya v. State, where it examined various possibilities under which a meritorious student may be denied seat, if the percentile system is employed. Thus, the same was read down for admission in engineering courses.

Prima facie agreeing with the proposition, the division bench in the instant case remarked,

"Let's talk about Delhi University. They take students up to 98%. If you convert it to percentile, they may only score 30 percentile. It has nothing to do with their merit."

Thus, the Bench suggested that the correct yardstick perhaps would be to apply percentage. By percentile, there is scope of a very meritorious student being left out because he doesn't fall in 50 percentile.

Singh then referred to the Supreme Court's decision in Index Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre vs. State of Madhya Pradesh, where the Madhya Pradesh government's policy proscribing the managements from filling up those seats that fall vacant due to non-joining of the candidates in mop-up round was declared as an excessive and unreasonable restriction, ultra vires the Constitution.

The Supreme Court had also said, "Not filling up all the medical seats is not a solution to the problem. Moreover, seats being kept vacant results in huge financial loss to the management of the educational institutions apart from being a national waste of resources. Interest of the general public is not subserved by seats being kept vacant."

Taking cue from this, Singh submitted, "Even in this case, fact that colleges unable to fill seats is not their fault. It is something Respondents have come up with...It is admitted position that seats are going vacant because of a category created by them. Then why should we have those seats altogether?"

Reliance was further placed on Rule 9 of Post-graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000 which says that students for PG medical courses shall be selected strictly on the basis of their inter-se "academic merit".

Counsel appearing for the Respondents, T Singh Dev, submitted that he will demonstrate why the percentile system was introduced and its benefits in enhancing inclusivity of candidates.

The mop-up counselling round is set to wind up on March 30, which will be followed by a stray vacancy round.

The percentile for admissions to NEET-PG 2021 was reduced by 15 percentile across all categories by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences last week. However, the petitioners approached the Court stating that despite such lowering of percentile each year, as many as 5,000 seats remain vacant.

On the last date, the Bench had said,

"we understand if you put a benchmark in terms of percentage. Then if there are vacancies, let them be. But you are on percentile system and despite this lowering of percentile, it's not working."

The hearing will continue on Monday, March 28.

Case Title: DR. ABHINAV KUMAR & ORS. v. Union of India