Court boost for deemed univs

In a major victory for deemed university medical and dental colleges in the state, the Bombay high court upheld their objection to the interference of the state government in their admission process.

The high court stated that they were an autonomous body and even though the deemed universities were conducting admissions on the basis of NEET scores, they could not be brought under the purview of the centralised admissions being conducted by the state government.

A division bench of Justices S. Kemkar and M.S. Karnik had heard the arguments of both the petitioner D.Y. Patil and the state government on Monday.

They had argued against and for the government’s decision to bring deemed university medical and dental colleges under the centralised process of admission along with private medical and dental colleges. The bench had reserved its order for

Tuesday. While reading out the order, Justice Kemkar said that the regulations for deemed universities were clear and conducting admissions on their own were part of their statutory rights.

There is no ambiguity with regards to this and hence the argument of the state that it was a gray area was not valid. Thus, deemed universities had the right to conduct admissions and counselling for medical and dental courses on their own.

The court, however, reserved the state government order that brought deemed universities under the purview of the centralised admission/ counselling process.

Appreciating the high court order, Vishwanath Bhosale, registrar, D.Y. Patil, said, “We will be conducting admissions/ counselling as per the Supreme Court’s Sankalp judgment, which makes NEET scores mandatory, and also appreciate the fact that the high court clarified the doubts regarding the powers enjoyed by deemed universities.”