The Supreme Court on Monday refused to decrease the cut-off percentile for NEET super-specialty courses admission stating that merit cannot be disregarded as doctors have to deal with a patient’s life. The decision was given by justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant, who said it was a matter of academic policy and could not be faulted.
“Candidates are sufficiently available for undertaking the counselling of vacant seats but the decision to not reduce the percentile is based on not compromising the merit," tbe SC bench said.
“Question of whether the percentile should be reduced further is a matter of academic policy. In the circumstances it is not possible for the court to entertain a plea for directing the reduction of the percentile,” it added.
Senior Advocate PS Patwalia had filed a petition in court by submitting the documents that 940 seats out of the total seats are still vacant for the academic year 2021-22.
The court said, “This court will not like to interfere unless there is manifest arbitrariness.”
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati explained that the cut-off percentile was reduced earlier also in the academic year 2019-20 so that the number of vacant seats could be reduced to 272 from 809 due to Covid-19.
