A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court, complaining about the delay in conducting counselling for undergraduate courses in Indian medicine. The litigant said many students do not join the courses because of the delay.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and R. Hemalatha on Wednesday directed a special government pleader to take note of the PIL petition and ensure that a status report on the counselling for admissions this year is filed in the court by February 8.
In his affidavit, A. Sathish Kumar, a document writer from Salem, said admissions for MBBS, as well as the courses in Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy, Siddha and so on, were being given in the State on the basis of marks obtained in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).
However, every year, the government conducts all-India counselling, followed by State counselling, first for MBBS and then BDS admissions, and then starts the admission process for the courses in Indian medicine. Almost one semester gets lost in the process, Mr. Kumar said.
The litigant also stated that many students end up joining other regular pure science courses because they do not want to waste time by waiting for Indian medicine counselling, without being about whether they will get a seat or not.
Saying that States such as Bihar conduct counselling for both MBBS and Indian medicine courses, together, the petitioner sought for a direction to government authorities to consider his representation and conduct simultaneous counselling.
