Chennai: Justifying its order earmarking 85 per cent of the seats available in the state quota to students of Tamil Nadu State Board for admission to MBBS and BDS courses, the state government on Thursday informed Madras high court that the government is duty bound to make provisions to protect the interests of students from state board who did not have access to CBSE syllabus.
Advocate general R. Muthukumaraswamy made this submission when the appeal filed by the state government came up for hearing before a division bench of Madras high court.
The appeal sought to set aside an order of a single judge, which quashed a GO earmarking 85 per cent of seats to students of TN state board and the remaining 15 per cent to students of CBSE and other boards for admission to MBBS and BDS course for the academic year 2017-18.
Advocate general said students cannot be held responsible for sudden change in the pattern of admission mainly based on syllabus, methodology and examination that were entirely different from each other.
Senior counsel P.Wilson, appearing for one of the petitioner submitted that the government was entitled to treat state board students differently from CBSE students. With Neet being conducted solely on the basis of CBSE syllabus, the state board students were at disadvantage.
Moreover, the CBSE schools were found only in urban areas. Therefore, to have a level playing field the government has taken a decision to give reservation to the state board students. Such a reservation cannot be held to be in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, Wilson added.
Senior counsels Nalini Chidambaram and P.S. Raman, appearing for some CBSE students submitted that the state government has notified 85 per cent reservation only to serve vested interest of urban private state board institutions. In the past 10 years only 340 students from rural government state board schools have managed to secure medical seats. This proves that government was wrong in saying that such reservation was aimed at safeguarding the interest of rural state board students, they added. The bench posted to July 26, further hearing of the case.
