Supreme Court Seeks Response from Central and Rajasthan Governments in Petitions by 200 Dental Students Apprehensive of De-Recognition by Dental Council of India
In a significant development, the Supreme Court has issued notices to the Central and Rajasthan governments regarding a series of petitions filed by approximately 200 dental students who are concerned about potential de-recognition by the Dental Council of India.
During today's hearing, a Bench comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Aravind Kumar indicated that if any relief is granted, it will safeguard the students who are already registered with the Council and have fulfilled the necessary criteria to qualify as dentists.
The Dental Council of India has also been served notice in this matter.
The petitions challenge a Rajasthan High Court order dated May 5, which upheld a single-judge ruling to disqualify the students from their undergraduate courses due to their admission with percentile relaxations.
The High Court had imposed a penalty of ₹50 lakh on the colleges that had granted such admissions, as there was a shortage of seats in the academic session that commenced in 2016.
The Federation for Private Medical and Dental Colleges of Rajasthan had received permission to allow admissions to candidates who did not meet the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) cut-offs, based on a reduced percentile threshold.
In October 2016, the Central government requested the State to withdraw and cancel these admissions.
Subsequently, the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences declared that the petitioners and other similarly situated students were retrospectively ineligible for admission.
Although the students sought relief from the Rajasthan High Court, a single-judge refused to entertain the plea. This decision was subsequently upheld by a division bench of the High Court, which opined that any such action would have broader implications for medical education.
Consequently, the affected students have now approached the Supreme Court by filing appeals.
The appellants were represented by Senior Advocates Maninder Singh and Gopal Sankaranarayanan, along with a team of advocates comprising Kumar Kartikay, Prabhas Bajaj, Aditya Bhati, K Paari Vendhan, Siddharth Praveen Acharya, Abhimanyu Kaul, Rishabh Sancheti, Shivendra Sharma, Anisha Agarwal, Sonali Agarwal, Param Dave, and Devika Vengurlekar.
TAGS: Supreme Court response Central government Rajasthan government petitions dental students de-recognition Dental Council of India Bench notice Rajasthan High Court admissions percentile relaxations NEET cut-offs Rajasthan University of Health Sciences appeals Senior Advocates advocates.
