The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought response from the Ministry of Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH); the National Commission for Homeopathy, and the National Testing Agency among others, on a plea challenging the vires of the National Commission for Homoeopathy Act, 2020, in so far as the same mandates a common National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for taking admission in Homoeopathy as well as Modern Medicine courses.
The Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla, while issuing the notice, permitted the concerned medical institutions to provisionally admit students in the undergraduate courses in Homeopathy stream for the academic year 2021-2022 without insisting upon NEET Qualifications, in case any surplus seats are left.
The matter will be heard next on March 30.
A group of private Homeopathic Medical Colleges knocked the doors of the Delhi High Court, after being aggrieved by Section 14 of the NCH Act (stipulates that there shall be a uniform NEET Examination for admission to undergraduate in Homeopathy courses) as well as Information Bulletin dated July 13, 2021, notifying a common NEET (UG) 2021 examination for admission to both modern medicine courses like MBBS, BDS, and alternate medicine courses like BAMS, BSMS, BUMS and BHMS.
The petition, filed through Advocates Animesh Kumar, Nishant Kumar, Shweta Singh and Rishabh Gupta, alleged that the impugned Information Bulletin does not provide for a separate criterion for admission into Homeopathy courses and rather wrongfully and arbitrarily, applies the qualifying criteria of 50 percentile as applicable for admission to modern medicine courses, for admission to homeopathy and other alternate medicine courses.
It is contended that NEET is a creation of the erstwhile Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, a statute which categorically restricted its operation to admission in respect of courses on modern scientific medicine and thereby, the same cannot be applied to other courses.
“It is categorically mentioned in the definition of medicine under the Act, from which NEET has been created, that the medicine means Modern Scientific medicine which is quite different from Indian System of Medicine, and Medical Institution which grants degrees, diplomas or licenses in Modern Scientific medicine will be construed as Medical Institution to which NEET can be applicable,” read the plea.
It is further contended that as both modern scientific medicine courses as well as homeopathy courses operate in different fields, a common examination cannot be made applicable to both these courses.
“The nature of the Courses with respect to Modern Scientific Medicine and Homeopathy are poles apart as the subjects taught to the students of Indian Medicine are distinct from the subjects taught to students of Modern Scientific Medicine,” the plea claimed.
“The purpose of common NEET for modern medicine i.e.MBBS, BDS as well as AYUSH courses is an attempt to combine two separate medicine systems and mix the education of two very different systems which have no basic connection between them. It was never the legislative intent to combine the two different systems of medicine and combining the entrance examination is only an attempt to decimate the quality of the education, which is unjust and manifestly arbitrary on the students of AYUSH courses,” it added.
Referring to the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court and the Madhya Pradesh High Court permitting similarly placed Homeopathy Medical Institutes to admit students to Homeopathy course without insisting upon NEET Qualifications in case seats remained vacant, the plea sought for quashing Section 14 of NCH Act as well as the Information Bulletin of NEET-2021 to the extent that it extends the scope of NEET for admissions in BHMS courses.