Supreme Court Dismisses IMA Bihar's Plea Challenging Minimum Percentile Criteria For NEET-PG Admissions

The Supreme Court on March 27 dismissed a special leave petition filed by Indian Medical Association Bihar State Branch challenging a Delhi High Court judgment which upheld the regulation mandating minimum marks of 50th percentile in National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to postgraduate courses.

The Court observed that it was not inclined to entertain the Special Leave Petition under Article 136 of the Constitution. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narsimha and JB Pardiwala considered the matter.

The IMA's petition was filed against the judgment delivered by a division bench of the Delhi High Court on July 29, 2022 whereby a challenge to Regulation 9(3) of the Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, as amended in April 2018, was rejected. The regulation prescribed minimum of 50th percentile as a mandatory requirement for admission to postgraduate courses in respect of General category candidates and 40% percentile for reserved category candidates.

What was before the High Court was a PIL filed by medical students who contended that the percentile system prescribed under Regulation 9(3) of the Postgraduate Medical Education (Amendment) Regulations, 2018 was a faulty system as due to the said system, a large number of seats were lying vacant even though candidates who were efficient and willing were available.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad observed that there cannot be any compromise with the quality of doctors or specialists as it involves a risk to human lives.

"…this Court emphasizes that the lowering of the standards of medical education has the potential of wreaking havoc on society at large due to the risk that practice of medicine entails; it involves in its ambit the matter of life and death, and therefore, it would be unconscionable for this Court to interfere in the standards duly and diligently set by the governing authority," the Court added.

Case Title : Indian Medical Association Bihar State Branch vs Union of India SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CIVIL) Diary No(s). 6243/2023

Click here to read the order