Postgraduate medical courses may get more competitive.

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The Bombay high court on Friday declared the government clause restricting deemed university (DU) MBBS students from taking the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (CET) for postgraduate medical courses ‘illegal, discriminatory and unreasonable’.

In yet another blow to the state government’s education policies, the high court felt the government decision was ‘liable to be quashed’.

Doctors from Bharti Vidyapeeth in Pune and DY Patil College in Navi Mumbai had challenged the government clause that debarred medical students from deemed universities from taking the PG CET. Fifteen students who had been debarred from taking the CET in 2009 had moved the court through three separate petitions. A division bench of justice FI Rebello and justice JH Bhatia heard the petitions on Friday.

The court took into account various affidavits filed by the state government in which they had said that undergraduate MBBS admissions of students from DUs were not through government CET and students who do not make it to government colleges go to DUs through private entrance tests.

The government said that poor but deserving students could not afford to study in deemed universities because of the exorbitant fees. Also, students graduating from government colleges had no postgraduate options in deemed universities.

The court, however, felt exceptions to merit could be made only in two categories - state interest or regional backwardness.

Of these, the restriction on DU medical students seems to be a reservation ‘based upon economic criteria of the rich and the poor’, which does not fit in any of the categories.

Backing the deemed university students, the court said, “The very fact that DU status has been granted is recognition by the University Grants Commission of the higher standards in colleges of DU. The government cannot ignore or exclude this aspect while forming its policies.”