CHENNAI: Noting that the purpose of NEET is to ensure that meritorious students alone are allotted medical seats, the Madras high court has made it clear that mere availability of vacant seats cannot be a ground to admit a person with lesser marks."If this is allowed, every college will start admitting students under some pretext or the other, thereby defeating the purpose of NEET and the directions of the apex court," Justice S Vaidyanathan said, dismissing a plea moved by M R Unnamalai who wanted the authorities to allow her to complete BDS course at RVS Dental College and Hospital in Coimbatore.According to the petitioner, in August-September 2017, she was admitted to first year BDS course in the college. Subsequently, the Tamil Nadu MGR University informed the college that the petitioner had not satisfied the eligibility marks of 131 for open category candidates, as she had obtained only 107. The communication further stated that the petitioner was not eligible to pursue the course.Justifying the admission , the college submitted that it was a private self-financing institution and that the annual intake for BDS course was 100, out of which 65% of the seats were allotted as government quota and the remaining 35% seats were to be filled up under the management quota."The government, for the academic year 2017-2018, has forwarded only 60 candidates under its quota. As a result, the remaining 5 seats fell vacant. In the management quota, the selection committee has sent only 9 candidates out of 35. The last date for admission was September 10, 2017," the college said.As per the usual procedure, whenever there were lapsed seats, the college would wait till the closing date for admission and if no further candidates were forwarded by the selection committee, the college would fill up the seats by itself, as there would be no other option left, it added.

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