SC to hear plea challenging Centre's ordinance on NEET

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will today hear a petition challenging the government ordinance, diluting an apex court order declaring the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) as the sole means to gain admission to undergraduate MBBS and BDS courses for the academic year 2016-2017. Activist Anand Rai, known for exposing the Vyapam scam, has filed a petition in the Apex Court against the Centre's decision to promulgate the ordinance. The petition that sought the quashing of the ordinance questioned the Centre's flip-flop stand on the issue. The Centre had initially accepted the apex court's order and later partially reversed it through the ordinance. The Centre's decision was in violation of Section 14 (right to equality), Section 21 (right to life) in terms of its arbitrary character and with regards to the students who would suffer irreparably because of the constantly changing stand by the centre, the petition stated. The petitioner said that various associations across the country must be treated with equality under law, also administrative authority should be exercised to assure a degree of fair decision-making. The Centre had given an undertaking and fulfilled criteria for a unified NEET, and yet within four weeks it passed the ordinance, the petition said; calling the ordinance "arbitrary".