BALAJI GYANOBA PHALKE Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Learned counsel for the Respondents waive service. By consent, the Rule is made returnable forthwith. The writ petition is taken up for hearing and final disposal, by consent and on the request of learned counsel.

(2.) The Petitioners before the Court are medical officers employed by the Government of Maharashtra. All of them, as in-service candidates, have applied for admission for postgraduate medical courses in the ensuing academic year. The Petitioners appeared for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test ( 'NEET') conducted by the National Board of Examinations, the Second Respondent to these proceedings.

(3.) In a recent judgment in Christian Medical College Vellore and others Vs. Union of India delivered on 18 July 2013 Transfer Case (Civil) No.98 of 2012 and connected batch of matters, the Supreme Court held that the regulations under which the Medical Council of India ( 'MCI') and Dental Council of India ( 'DCI') introduced a single National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test are ultra vires the Constitution on the ground that they have the effect of denying state run universities and all medical colleges and institutions from admitting students to M.B.B.S., B.D.S. and postgraduate ( 'PG course') courses according to their own procedures which has been held to be an integral facet of the right to administer. Moreover, it has been held that MCI is not empowered by the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 to actually conduct the NEET. In the penultimate paragraph of the judgment, the Supreme Court has issued the following directions :