NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court, on Friday, dismissed a plea seeking directions to lower the minimum marks required for admission to NEET-PG 2021 across categories beyond the reduction already notified on March 12 by the National Board of Examination.”This is not the role of the court,” said a Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Bhushan R Gavai, noting that the government has already exercised the discretion and the petitioner cannot seek reduction in the minimum qualifying percentile as a matter of right.
By way of the said notification, the Union Government had reduced the minimum qualifying percentile for the General Category from 50th percentile to 35, and for SC/ST/OBC from 40th percentile to 25.
Senior advocate Nikhil Nayyar, appearing on behalf of a petitioner, apprised the Bench that “we have challenged the fixation of percentile.”
Justice Rao said: “There should be a limit to filing such writ petitions.” Nayyar said he only wanted the court to examine whether the Centre had exercised its discretion in a reasonable manner.
It is the discretion of the Government of India. They have reduced it by 15%. You say reduce it further. Someone will come and say reduce it even further. The role of the court should not be misused by filing such writ petitions,” Justice Rao remarked.
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