50% entrance exam marks enough for admission: HC

CHENNAI: Doctors who have secured 50 pc marks in the entrance tests for admission to super-speciality courses against the 90 marks are eligible for admission in the open category, the HC has observed.The 10 marks awarded for doctors in service, at the rate of one mark per year, could be added only for arriving at the rank of candidates and it could not be treated as eligibility for admission, Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar said while disposing of a writ petition from Dr Jayanth V Kumar, on Jan 27, last.Kumar applied for super-speciality course (M Ch) and appeared for the entrance exam conducted by the DME in May, 2011, and secured 48.75 marks. But he was not selected on the ground that he had not obtained 50 pc  out of 100.He contended that the eligibility criteria fixed by the MCI was only 50 pc . The government could not add 10 marks for experience and fix minimum eligibility as 50 marks out of 100. Since he had secured 48.75 out of 90 marks, he was entitled for admission, he added.In the light of the stand taken by the MCI that 50 marks were to be secured by a candidate in the competitive test and the experience gained could not be part of competitive test, the judge said that he was of the view that the petitioner could not be treated as ineligible for admission as he had secured 48.75 marks in the entrance exam out of 90 marks.Since the cut off date for admission for 2011-12 was over on Sept 30, last year, petitioner could be accommodated for 2012-13 if no other general candidate was available with marks higher  than his, the judge said.