Admit Ayurveda student for MBBS: HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court rejected the state’s refusal to grant admission to a student who was eligible for admission to the MBBS course this year on the grounds that she had already taken admission to the BAMS (Ayurveda) course last year and the BAMS seat would go to waste. The student had challenged the state’s refusal on the ground that while the MH-CET 2016 rules restricted her from cancelling her admission and seeking admission to another health science course, the NEET-UG rules did not stipulate any such restriction. The court upheld the contention of the student and directed the state government to grant her a seat to the MBBS course.

A division bench of Justice Anoop Mohta and Bharati Dangre was hearing a writ petition filed by Maithilee Kadam, a first year student of the BAMS course seeking for directions to the state to accept her cancellation of admission to the Ayurveda course and be permitted to take admission to the MBBS course.

According to senior advocate Atul Damle appearing for the petitioner, Ms Kadam had appeared for the MH-CET in 2015 but had not secured a seat in any health science course. She again tried in 2016 and secured a seat for the BAMS course in a government run college. However, as she wanted to pursue MBBS, she appeared for the NEET-UG in 2017 and secured an all India rank of 22576 based on which she applied for a seat to the MBBS/BDS course. However, the state rejected her application.

The state objected saying that the MH-CET notification disallowed a student from any health science course to cancel his/her admission.  The court said that she possessed the drive to excel and should not be refused a seat, directing the state to grant her the seat.