SC upholds validity of NEET for Ayush courses

NEWDELHI:LACK of minimum standards of education in Ayurvedic, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy streams will lead to half-baked doctors and prescribing a National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions to courses in these streams cannot be faulted, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

A bench of justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta upheld the validity of the notifications issued by the Central Council of Indian Medicine, which had mandated minimum qualifying marks in NEET for admission to an undergraduate course in Ayurvedic, Unani and Siddha streams and postgraduate courses in Ayurveda.

“Doctors who are qualified in Ayurvedic, Unani and Homeopathy streams also treat patients and the lack of minimum standards of education would result in half-baked doctors being turned out of professional colleges,” the court observed.

The notifications were issued in December 2018 after the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homoeopathy instructed all the state governments, Union territories, and universities to admit students in AYUSH undergraduate courses for the academic year 2018-2019 only on the basis of merit list of the NEET.

Similar notifications introducing the AYUSH Post Graduate Entrance Test for admissions to Post Graduate courses (Md-ayurveda) were also issued.

The notifications were challenged by AYUSH colleges before the Punjab & Haryana high court which dismissed the same in December 2019.

The SC, in its judgment, cited its 2000 decision in the Veterinary Council of India v. Indian Council of Agricultural Research in which it had upheld regulations framed by the Veterinary Council of India prescribing the standards for veterinary education.

The current case was squarely covered by that judgment, the court said.