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Supreme Court Strikes Down Rajasthan NEET Cut-Off Relaxation, Regularises Completed BDS Degrees

Invoking Article 142, the court protected completed degrees by conditioning relief on pro-bono service undertakings, heavy payments.

Overview

  • The bench held Rajasthan had no authority to reduce NEET-UG qualifying percentiles for BDS in 2016–17, a power reserved for the Centre in consultation with the Dental Council of India.
  • Each erring private dental college must deposit Rs 10 crore and the State must deposit Rs 10 lakh with the Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority within eight weeks.
  • The deposits will be kept in fixed term accounts with interest directed to One Stop Centres, Nari Niketans, old age homes and child care institutions under oversight of a five-judge Rajasthan High Court committee.
  • Students whose BDS courses are completed and degrees issued are protected, subject to filing affidavits within eight weeks to render up to two cumulative years of pro-bono service during declared emergencies.
  • Relief is expressly confined to completed-degree cases and not a precedent, with the Court censuring colleges for admitting candidates with zero or negative NEET scores and noting systemic lapses by State and regulators.