The Supreme Court on Friday, today, stayed a Bombay High Court Order dated 30.08.2016 which allowed deemed colleges of Maharashtra to hold their own separate counselling sessions for medical courses. SC Bench comprising of Justice Shiva Kirti Singh and Justice R Banumathi while staying the order of the Bombay High Court ordered the case to be listed for hearing along with other similar matters which are to be heard by the Constitution Bench on 19.09.2016.
The Bench also observed
“Prima facie, we are of the view that the High Court should not have stayed the orders issued by the State of Maharashtra and the Union of India dated 20.08.2016 and 09.08.2016 respectively. Hence the impugned order passed by the Bombay High Court is stayed till the next date of hearing.”
Deemed medical colleges of Maharashtra which have about 1600 seats had approached the Bombay High Court, wherein the Bombay HC on 30.08.2016 allowed their Petition by allowing separate counselling for deemed colleges, however ordering that admissions shall take place only as per the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) rankings. Thereby the High Court also stayed the decision of the Maharashtra and Central Government for holding of counselling in all medical and dental colleges only in a centralized manner, so that aspiring medical students, who had appeared for NEET do not have to go through the tedious process of applying separately to each college. State of Maharashtra approached the SC against the above Bombay HC order, wherein Notice to all the parties was issued today.
