It said it would be reviewing the validity of the ordinance, which “was in doubt”.
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The three-member Oversight Committee was constituted by the Supreme Court and comprises retired Chief Justice of India R M Lodha, Dr S K Sarin and former CAG Vinod Rai.
But on May 24, the government brought in the ordinance exempting states from the ambit of NEET.
“Those states which have held examinations before the Ordinance and after our order, is patently bad”.
The apex court had on May 9 rejected the pleas of state governments and minority institutions to allow them to hold separate entrance exams for MBBS and BDS courses for 2016-17, saying only National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) provides for conducting test for admission to these courses. “We could not have allowed this disparity”, Rohatgi said.
Senior advocate Amarendra Sharan, appearing for NGO Sankalp, sought the quashing of the ordinance, saying it was a violation of the SC order by the government.
But the court said, “We are not interfering as it will create more chaos”. Supreme court has been requested to put a stay on current admission process at Andhra Pradesh, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu DM, MCh entrance examinations.
Holding that the issuance of an ordinance to derail the court order was not “proper” or a “good practice”, the bench said: “Once NEET became operative, no other exam could have taken place”. “Today, even the upper middle class can not afford seats in medical colleges”, the bench said. The apex court, however, refused to interfere in the matter for now.
The court refused to entertain a second plea by the petitioner for centralised counselling of candidates for various entrance tests.
Supreme Court is also unhappy with the Centre taking the ordinance route giving states the option of opting out of NEET for the academic session 2016-2017.
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“Please do not take this as “ego”, AG said.
