NEET BDS 2021: Supreme Court Seeks Centre's Response In Plea To Reduce Percentile For Qualification

The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Sanjiv Khanna and Surya Kant while issuing notice in the plea asked the Center to file a counter affidavit specifying:

1. Total eligible candidates after deducting the admission granted for MBBS Courses (BDS Courses)
2. Total number of vacant seats in All India Quota and State Quota
3. The number of seats which are remaining in government colleges on one hand & private/deemed colleges on the other hand.

What Transpired In The Supreme Court Today?

When the matter was called for hearing, ASG Bhati while submitting a note which dealt with figures pertaining to the total number of seats in the academic year 2019-20, 2020-21, the reduction of percentile said, "After the note has been prepared, results have been declared and all the 111 seats in government colleges have been allotted."

Submitting that the figures in the chart are not correct and only cater to the seats pertaining to the All India Quota said, "They ( the charts) come just a few minutes before the matter is taken up. These figs are not correct and the above fig is for AIQ seats. Out of 20k vacancies only 9k seats have been filled up."

Referring to the letter dated April 6, 2022 issued by the Dental Council of India wherein it had made a proposal for lowering the percentile cut off, the bench said, "DCI is also acknowledging. They say that out of 20k seats only 9k seats have been filled."

Responding to the remarks made by the bench, ASG Bhati said, "If proper notice is issued, we'll have time to prepare affidavits. We just have fig's of the AIQ."

"Eligible candidates in 2019-2020 were almost 7 lakhs but there were still vacant seats. There must be some reason for that. There must be some reason as to why this is happening," the bench remarked.

Accordingly, while issuing notice in the plea the bench said, 'We will ask them to place full data of the total vacant seats; how many seats are in private universities. Students don't want to go to these deemed universities with the kind of fees etc. We'll ask them to file a reply. We'll issue notice."

Details Of The Plea

It was stated in the petition that based on the eligibility criteria laid down as per the BDS Regulations, the Petitioners, along with thousands of other students did not obtain the minimum marks and therefore did not qualify as eligible candidates for admission into BDS Courses.

The petitioners in the plea filed through Advocate Krishna Dev further stated that on 06.04.2022, the Executive Committee recommended reducing the Qualifying Cut-off Percentile regards the NEET - BDS 2021 by 10.00 percentile for each category.

Against this backdrop petitioners had further sought for consequently directing the competent authorities to conduct Mop Up round of counseling for the vacant seats after publishing of revised qualifying cut off percentile.

It may be noted that the Top Court on May 1, 2022 had asked the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to consider afresh its decision to not lower the qualifying cut-off percentile for admissions to the Bachelor of Dental Surgery(BDS) within a period of 1 week.

The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli issued the direction considering the fact that last date for BDS admissions have been extended to May 15(from April 11) and that the Executive Committee of the Dental Council of India (DCI), in its meeting held on April 6, recommended the Center to reduce the qualifying percentile.

Case Title: Kunal v Union of India & Ors

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