Indian medicine: Plea to lower Neet marks

Chennai: The Madras high court has ordered notice to the Union and state governments on a petition, which sought a direction to them for lowering the eligibility marks prescribed for admission to Indian Medicine UG Courses viz., BAMS, BSMS, BUMS and BHMS for the academic session 2019-2020, besides to extend the cut off date of admission for the academic session 2019-2020.

Justice G.Jayachandran ordered notice to Union and state governments, the Selection Committee, Directorate of Indian Medicine, the Tamil Nadu Dr.M.G.R.Medical University, National Testing Agency and three others and posted to October 30, further hearing of a petition filed by G.Naveenbharathy, an aspiring Indian Medicine student.

Petitioner’s counsel Kandavadivel Doraisamy submitted that the petitioner from his young age is aspiring to practice Indian (Ayush) Medicine. After completing his plus two, the petitioner had written Neet 2019 conducted by the NTA. However, his mark was below the cut off marks prescribed by the union government.
The petitioner was given to understand that totally 394 seats were available under the management quota in the state of Tamil Nadu for the Indian Medicine courses. 555 students have applied under the management quota. Out of which only 116 students got allotment order. As on date there were about 278 vacant seats available under the management quota in Tamil Nadu. As on date 230 seats were vacant under the government quota (including All India quota) in the state of Tamil Nadu, he added.

Kandavadivel Doraisamy submitted that till 2018-2019, the admission to Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Siddha and Homoeopathy courses was based on the marks obtained by the students in their plus two or its equivalent examination recognized by the state government concerned and the education board.

The prescription of Neet score for admission to Indian Medicine courses was introduced for the first time only from the current academic year. In the notification for the academic session 2019-2020 issued by the Directorate of Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy, it was indicated that even students who have lower percentile mark could apply for admission to Indian Medicine courses for the current academic year. The petitioner has applied for the AYUSH seat. The Ministry of Ayush during the previous academic year had extended the time for admission to Ayush courses up to November 15 as the cut off date of admission. Moreover, the Union government by an order dated September 6, 2019 lowered the qualifying cut off percentile for Neet-UG 2019 for admission to BDS courses for the current academic year taking note of the fact that there were large number of vacant seats available in the current academic year.
Therefore, the petitioner sent a representation dated October 9, 2019 to the authorities requesting them to lower the qualifying cut off percentile for Neet-UG 2019 for admission to Indian Medicine courses and further to extend the cut off date of admission for the current academic session to November 15, 2019. However, there was no response, he added.