TN seeks to implead in common test case

TAMIL Nadu has filed an impleadment application averring that orders that has to be passed by the apex court in the Simraj Jain versus Union of India case may vitally affect the interests of Tamil Nadu with regard to the method of admission to medical courses.

Tamil Nadu came to know that the Central government has informed the apex court last week that it had approved the proposal of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for amendment of regulations relating to courses of graduate and post graduate students by providing a single eligibility-cum-entrance examination.
The state government had constituted a committee of educational experts headed by Dr M Anandakrishnan, former vice-chancellor of Anna University, to recommend suitable measures for abolition of common entrance test (CET) from the academic year 2007-2008.
The said committee made a recommendation to eliminate the CET. Afterwards, Tamil Nadu enacted the TN Admission in Professional Educational Institutions Act, 2006. The Act says admission to government seats in professional colleges should be made on the basis of the marks obtained by students in the relevant subject in the qualifying examination.
The Madras High Court upheld the challenge to the Act and an appeal against it is pending in the apex court, the applicant State submitted.
That being the legal position, the proposed amendment would be in contradiction to the State Act, it added.