The Supreme Court recently delivered a crucial judgment allowing certain undergraduate AYUSH course students to retain their degrees, even though they had not taken admission through the NEET-UG examination.

A bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K. Vinod Chandran passed this order, emphasizing that withholding the students' results after completing their course would cause them severe hardship.

"It is true that colleges should not have admitted candidates who did not appear for the NEET examination. However, now that these students have completed their courses, withholding their exam results or degrees will cause immense hardship to them." – Supreme Court

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Case Details

This case revolved around students who secured admission to undergraduate AYUSH courses in 2019 without appearing for the NEET-UG examination. The petitioners argued that they were unaware that NEET was mandatory for admission to these courses.

Initially, a Single Bench of the Calcutta High Court ruled in favor of the students, stating that there was no proper publication regarding the mandatory requirement of NEET for AYUSH course admissions. However, the Union of India challenged this order before a Division Bench of the High Court.

The Division Bench examined the case and noted that a public notice had been published in newspapers in 2018, informing candidates that NEET qualification was necessary for admission into AYUSH UG courses. Additionally, several other students had appeared for NEET-UG 2019 and secured admission accordingly. Based on this, the Division Bench rejected the petitioners’ claim that they were unaware of the NEET requirement.

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Supreme Court’s Final Decision

When the case reached the Supreme Court, the key question was whether the petitioners were eligible to retain their degrees despite securing admission without taking the NEET-UG exam.

The Supreme Court acknowledged that, technically, these students should not have been admitted without qualifying NEET. However, since they had already completed their courses, it would be unfair to withhold their results. The court, therefore, lifted its earlier interim order, which had restrained the declaration of their results, and allowed them to retain their degrees.

"Now that these students have completed their courses, withholding their results would be unfair and would negatively impact their future." – Supreme Court