NEET ordinance’ unwarranted’ and not in ‘good taste’, says Apex Court

The Apex Court today witnessed some serious exchange between the Three Judge Bench and Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi on NEET ordinance. The Bench headed by Anil R. Dave reportedly told the Attorney General that NEET ordinance was ‘unwarranted’ and not in ‘good taste’. The Bench however, did not grant any interim stay in the matter.

“Prima facie, we find that the validity of the NEET ordinance is open to doubt. But, as 50 per cent of the States have already conducted their exams, we do not want to grant the petitioners any interim relief”, the Bench said while refusing to grant interim stay in the matter.

“We find that even after our order on May 9, several States ignored us and continued with their own exams. This was not in good taste. Your ordinance was not warranted. All we wanted was to bring in uniformity. We find that out of 36, 17 States have already held their own exams,..Your move to bring this ordinance despite our order was not proper. It was unwarranted. It should not have happened. When the court said ‘no’ to State exams, you disregard us and issue an ordinance for State exams... Did you not think about the confusion it would cause to the children? After all these are our children,” , Justice Dave said.

Attorney General countered the observations made by the Bench and said “Our ordinance only amends the NEET notification. This amendment to have State exams this year along with NEET has already been adopted by more than half the country... Who are these people here to come to court? If States or students have a grievance with our ordinance, they have to come to court. They have not come,” 

The Apex Court had on April 11 ordered all medical colleges, including deemed institutions, to take admissions on the basis of NEET. The ordinance brought by the Government allowed State Governments to conduct their own admission test this year.