The Supreme Court in the case Kunal & Or’s versus Union of India & Or’s in relation with the admission to the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) asked the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to consider afresh its decision to not lower the qualifying cut-off percentile within a period of 1 week.
A writ petition filled by an aspiring dentist who appeared in NEET UG for conducting map up round counselling on the basis of the reduced cut- off as recommended by the DCI to fill up the vacant seat in dental colleges for academic session 2021-2022.
The Bench said in its order:
We accordingly request the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to take a fresh in terms of the provisions laid down under the proviso Reg (ii) (5) (2) within a period of 1 week from the date of this order, Since the last date of admission has been extended having regards to extent of vacant seats & decision of this court and will be appropriate if the issue pertaining to percentile is reconsidered by the Central Government.
The Bench observed that the decision might have been taken as the last date of admission was then April 11 the Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Union submitted that the decision was taken on April 8, 2022 to not reduce the percentile.
Justice Chandrachud orally told the ASG that since the schedule has been extended you can take the decision afresh.
As per Executive Committee recommendation for lowering the qualifying cut off percentile against this backdrop petitions had sought.
The plea preferred by Krishna Dev, AOR stated:
The recommendation of the Executive Committee dated 06.04.2022 to lower the qualifying Cut-off percentile for the current academic session. The Central Government has previously lowered the Qualifying the Cut-off percentile for admissions in the academic year of 2019-20 and again in 2020-21 and ought to do so for the current academic session given the number of vacancies and in the light of the unprecedent COVID- 19 pandemic, thousands of candidates across the country, including the Petitioner would be deprived of their fundamental rights enshrined under Article 14 and Article 22 of the Constitution of India, in the event that The Central Government does not at the earliest implement.
The Bench comprising of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli issued that the Executive Committee of the Dental Council of India (DCI) in its meeting held on April 6 recommended the centre to reduce the qualifying percentile and further the bench issued the direction considering the fact that the last date of BDS admissions have been extended from April 11 to May 15.
The Court further relied on the decision rendered last year in Harshit Agarwal & Or’s v Union of India and Or’s which noted the Central Government had lowered the qualifying cut off by 10.00 percentile for the admission of BDS Course for the academic year 2019-2020.