NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that reducing the cut-off marks for admissions to courses does not lower the standards of education and overruled the Union government by directing lowering of qualifying marks by 10% percentile points to help private colleges fill nearly 7,000 BDS seats for the academic year 2020-21 by February 18.
A bench of Justices LN Rao and Krishna Murari accepted advocate Maninder Singh’s argument that the government could not have refused to accept Dental Council of India’s recommendations for lowering the qualifying marks by 20% percentile points on the ground that lowering the cut-off mark could have adverse impact on education standards. Singh had said the Centre had earlier accepted similar recommendations for lowering cut-off for super speciality courses in medical sciences.
Writing the judgment, Justice Rao said, “If reducing minimum marks amounts to lowering the standards, Centre would not do so for super speciality courses. We are in agreement with Singh, counsel for the petitioners, that lowering minimum marks and reducing the percentile for admission to first-year BDS course would not amount to lowering the standards of education.” It ordered admissions to BDS courses strictly on merit and said the process of admission be completed by February 18.
It also found force in additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati’s argument that fees charged by private dental colleges were a deterrent in filling up seats. “The managements of private colleges shall consider reducing the fee charged by them to encourage students to join colleges,” it said.
The order implies general category candidates with 40 percentile points, SC/ST/OBCs with 30 percentile points and physically challenged candidates with 35 percentile points would be eligible for admission to BDS courses in government and private colleges. Singh argued that 7,000 seats in BDS courses were vacant and available infrastructure would be wasted.