8 NEET-Qualified Students Move Supreme Court Against Non-Regularization Of Provisional Admission To Unani College By Ayush Department

Eight NEET-qualified students have filed a plea before the Supreme Court for regularization of provisional admissions granted to them by a Unani College to the BUMS Course. The matter will be heard after one week.

Briefly put, the petitioners/students had initially approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court with a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, seeking direction to Ayush Department (Bhopal) to regularize their admissions to Bachelor of Unani Medicine & Surgery (BUMS) course for 2022-2023, as they had appeared in the National Eligibility-cum-Medical Test (NEET) Examination, 2022 and cleared the same.

The petitioners' case was that even after securing names in merit list, they were not called for registration and counseling by respondent(s). They alleged that the Ayush Department did not issue them admission letters till the last date of admission. As such, they were constrained to approach the Unani College for grant of provisional admission, which issued provisional admission letters to them. However, the Ayush Department did not regularize or affirm the admissions.

The respondents' case, on the other hand, was that the petitioners did not register themselves on the online portal (before commencement of first counselling) and thus subsequent process could not be undertaken. The authorities further alleged that it was a case of backdoor entry, as the Unani college could not have granted provisional admission to the petitioners. It was also pointed out that the relevant academic session was over.

After going through the record, the High Court observed that the petitioners did not follow the procedure envisaged in National Commission of Indian System of Medicine (Minimum Standard for Under Graduate Unani Education) Regulations, 2020 for the purpose of admission to Ayurvedic, Homeopathy and Unani Education Courses in Madhya Pradesh. 

It added: "The petitioners were not the part of counselling process and took the admissions illegally in the respondent No.3/college, which also did not have any authority to admit the students directly without following the due procedure and the same cannot be termed as anything else, but per se illegal."

The High Court also expressed concern with regard to backdoor entries in medical colleges and noted:

"It is the high time that such backdoor entries in educational institutions, including medical colleges, should stop. Lakhs of students all over the country work hard and toil to secure admissions to the educational institutions on the basis of their merit. To permit any backdoor entries to any educational institutions would be grossly unfair to those students who are denied the admissions, despite being more meritorious, on account of the seats being taken and blocked by such backdoor entrants."

On this view, the petition was dismissed, while giving liberty to the petitioners to proceed against the Unani College in accordance with law. Aggrieved by the High Court order, the petitioners approached the Supreme Court.

In the plea before the Supreme Court, the petitioners have claimed that out of 8 of them, 3 had registered on the portal but were still not called for counseling. It is further stated that on the last date of admission i.e. 03.04.2023, even after the mop up round of the counseling, 8 seats of the Unani college were lying vacant. As such, the college gave provisional admissions to the petitioners on these 8 seats.

Besides stay of the impugned judgment, the petitioners seek a direction to the respondents, so that they are allowed to appear in the examination starting from 12.06.2024 for BUMS first year course.

The plea has been filed through Advocate-on-Record Pragati Neekhra.

Case Title: SAYYED USMA MEHMOOD AND ORS. Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS., SLP(C) No. 12428/2024