Supreme Court to examine lowering eligibility marks for BDS seats

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the Centre's response to a petition by an aspiring dentist for lowering threshold marks for admissions to BDS courses for 2021-22 academic session on the ground that more than 67% of the total 27,500 BDS seats are lying vacant and may be wasted.
A bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, Sanjiv Khanna and Surya Kant sought the Centre's response by May 17, even as additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati said that the Centre will seek BDS vacancy data from states and place it in a tabular form before the court.
The bench said, "the Centre's counter-affidavit shall specify, in particular, the total number of eligible candidates (after deducting the admissions granted for MBBS courses) for BDS courses for 2021-22; Total number of vacant seats in the all-India quota as well as the State quota; and, the bifurcation of the total number of seats which remain vacant between government colleges, on the one hand, and in private colleges, including deemed universities, on the other."
The bench said pendency of the proceedings "shall not prevent the Union Government, if it is so advised after reviewing the data of the total number of seats which are still vacant in the BDS courses, to determine as to whether a suitable reduction of the percentile should be made."
"We, however, clarify that this is not a direction by this Court, one way or the other. The matter would be considered on merits on the next date of listing on May 17," it said.