Uttarakhand High Court
WPMS/1019/2021 on 5 July, 2021
IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND
AT NAINITAL
ON THE 5th DAY OF JULY, 2021
BEFORE:
HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE MANOJ KUMAR TIWARI
Writ Petition (M/S) No.1019 of 2021
BETWEEN:
Om Ayurveda Medical College Hospital and
Research Center
.....Petitioner
(Mr. Navneet Kaushik, Advocate)
AND:
State of Uttarakhand & Anr.
.....Respondents
(Mr. T.S. Phartiyal, Addl. C.S.C. for the State of Uttarakhand and
Mr. Sanjay Bhatt, Advocate for respondent no.3)
JUDGMENT
1. This writ petition has been filed by Om
Ayurveda Medical College, Hospital and Research
Center, which imparts instructions in B.A.M.S.
Course in undergraduate programme, Ayurvedic
Medicine. It has intake capacity of 60 seats.
2. Since many of the available seats in
B.A.M.S. course in the College remained unfilled
after exhausting the list of NEET qualified
candidates, therefore petitioner had earlier filed
WPMS No.695 of 2021. The relief sought in the said
writ petition is extracted below:-
(i) to issue a writ, order or direction in the
nature of mandamus directing the
respondents and permitting the
petitioner to fill their unfilled seats of
B.A.M.S. course in the ongoing
counseling/counseling by the
management for the academic year
2020-21 after all NEET qualified
students have made their choices, from
any other candidates who have
appeared for NEET examination or who
has the minimum qualification to
undergo the Ayush Courses (B.A.M.S.,
B.U.M.S., B.H.M.S.) as provided and
such candidates be permitted to take
part in the ongoing counseling.
3. Said writ petition was disposed of finally
vide order dated 22.03.2021. Operative portion of
the said order is reproduced below:-
"4. Since the condition regarding minimum
percentile has been imposed by the Ministry
of AYUSH and the said body alone can
consider relaxing the condition. In such view
of the matter, the writ petition is disposed of
with liberty to the petitioner to make
representation to Secretary, Ministry of
AYUSH, Government of India, within 48
hours. If such representation is made within
stipulated time, Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH
shall examine the matter and pass
appropriate order, in accordance with law, on
or before 28.03.2021, keeping in mind the
fact that counselling will come to a close on
31.03.2021."
4. Pursuant to the direction issued by this
Court, Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy,
Unani, Siddha and Homoepathy (Ayush) has passed
an order on 26.03.2021, whereby petitioner's
request for further lowering the cut-off marks for
admission in U.G. Courses for academic year 2020-
21 has been rejected. Feeling aggrieved by the said
order dated 26.03.2021, petitioner has filed this
writ petition.
5. Heard learned counsel for the parties
through video conferencing and perused the record.
6. The Competent Authority in Ministry of
AYUSH, Government of India, has given valid
reasons for rejecting petitioner's request. It has
been held that due to present COVID-19 pandemic
and various other reasons, Ministry has relaxed the
percentile criteria by 10 percentile points for each
category students, vide order dated 15.01.2021. It
is further held that as per the present relaxed
criteria, marks required for unreserved candidates
at 40 percentile is 113 out of 720 marks, which
turns out to 15.69%, while for various reserved
categories, required percentile score is 30
percentile, which turns out to 87 out of 720 i.e.
12.08%.
7. In para 3 of the impugned order, it has
been held that further lowering of percentile
criterion fixed for admission in UG Ayurveda Course
will result in inviting lower qualified candidates,
having score below 15.69% for general category
and 12.08% for reserved category, and would
defeat the very purpose of rendering quality
medical education and health services. It has been
observed that lowering of qualification marks may
compromise the standard of qualified Medical
Practitioners, which may adversely affect the life
and health of general public.
8. This Court concurs with the reasoning
given by the Competent Authority in the Ministry of
AYUSH while rejecting petitioner's representation.
Admissions on the score of NEET are made in
B.A.M.S. course to ensure that only meritorious
candidates are given admission and those who are
not found to be meritorious are excluded; that
purpose would be defeated if the percentile criteria
is endlessly relaxed on the asking of the Ayurvedic
Colleges.
9. In view of the facts and figures given in
the impugned order, any direction to further lower
the cut-off marks required for admission in U.G.
AYUSH Course would be unwarranted. Thus, this
Court does not find any scope of interference in the
matter.
10. Accordingly, writ petition fails and is
dismissed. No order as to costs.
(MANOJ KUMAR TIWARI, J.)
Rajni
