In a major relief to more than 1,000 students admitted to BDS courses in various private dental colleges against the management quota, the Karnataka high court on Thursday quashed the communication issued by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) in June last year. The university had refused to approve their admissions for the academic year 2012-13 as they had not written the CET.

Allowing the petitions filed by Srinija Dasari and others, Justice Anand Byrareddy observed that the RGUHS communication was nothing but a “knee-jerk reaction” and a misreading of the apex court’s verdict in the Priya Gupta case. The judge also noted the consistently high number of vacant seats for the BDS course in the past several years in colleges coming under CET and Comed-K, ranging from 31% to 92% (see table).

“When the seats are more and aspirants few, there is no need to hold an entrance test to determine merit,” the judge observed, allowing the students to continue their course. He, however, made it clear that when the number of aspirants is higher than the available seats, an entrance test for admissions is necessary.

RGUHS had issued a communication in June last year to the colleges concerned, saying the admission of these students could not be approved as
they had not taken the CET to determine merit, in terms of the Supreme Court order.

The students claimed the communication was issued by RGUHS just before examinations, which were to commence on June 21, 2013.

Date: April 4th, 2014

Source: TOI