Madras High Court Made Aadhaar Card Mandatory for Tamil Nadu NEET 2018 Counselling

Madras High Court has made Aadhaar card mandatory for Tamil Nadu NEET 2018 counselling process.

25 June 2018: Madras High Court has made it clear that Aadhaar card and photocopy of the same are mandatory for medical counselling in Tamil Nadu despite the fact that in March this year Supreme Court had said that Aadhaar card is not imperative for NEET registration process. A petition was filed alleging that many students from other states have been allotted MBBS seats in Tamil Nadu colleges on the basis of nativity certificates which were not genuine. This adversely affected the opportunity for Tamil Nadu students to get an MBBS seat. So, Justice N Kirubakaran has passed this order of making Aadhaar Card mandatory for NEET counselling in Tamil Nadu.

The court has directed the medical education authorities responsible for Tamil Nadu state NEET counselling to insist the students for showing their Aadhaar cards.

In March 2018, the Supreme Court has directed CBSE, NEET exam conducting authority, not to make the Aadhaar number mandatory for NEET and other all-India exams registration. In the initial NEET notification, providing the Aadhaar Card details was mandatory.

G Karthikeyan, Assistant Solicitor General (ASG), had asked for time to get details about the students who have applied for MBBS seats in Tamil Nadu as well as other states. After hearing from the ASG and the counsel of petitioners, the judge said, "It is stated that in all other states Aadhaar number of the student has to be provided in the application itself."

In order to confirm that genuine state candidates benefit from the state quota, the court said, "It is appropriate to make the production of Aadhaar card and a photocopy of it compulsory at the time of counselling".

The judge further said, “The necessity as per this order about bringing the Aadhaar card should be published by authorities on websites and by way of news reports within two days so that candidates get to know about the production of Aadhaar cards in advance.”