HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL HON’BLE JUSTI CE SRI MANOJ KUMAR TI WARI AND HON’BLE JUSTI CE SRI SUBHASH UPADHYAY Writ Petition No. 1068 of 2025 (MB)

Uttaranchal Unani Medical College and Hospital --Petitioner Versus Union of India and others --Respondents --------------------------------------------------------------------

Advocates:-

Mr. T.A. Khan, Senior Advocate assisted by Mohd. Shaify, Advocate for petitioner Mr. Sachin Mohan Singh Mehta, Brief Holder for the State of Uttarakhand Mr. Manoj Kumar, Standing Counsel for Union of India Mr. Nishant Krishna Adhikari, Advocate with Mr. Gaurav Nagpal, Advocate holding brief of Mr. Ramji Shrivastava, Advocate for respondent No. 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------

The Court made the following:

JUDGMENT: (per Hon’ble Justice Sri Manoj Kumar Tiwari)

1. Petitioner is running a Unani College in the name and style of “Uttaranchal Unani Medical College & Hospital, Mustafabad (Padartha), Dhanpura District Haridwar.

2. According to the petitioner, due to minimum cut off marks, fixed by National Commission for Indian System of Medicine for admission in BUMS Course i.e. 50 percentile in National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, sufficient number of students are not coming forward for taking admission during academic year 2025-2026 and as against total intake capacity of 42, so far only 5 students have taken admission.

3. Learned Senior Counsel for petitioner refers to Regulation 4(2) of National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (Minimum Standards of Undergraduate Unani Education), Regulations 2022, which is extracted below:

“(2) National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test.- (i) There shall be a uniform entrance examination for all medical institutions at the under-graduate level, namely, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to under-graduate programme in each academic year and shall be conducted by an authority designed by the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine.

Provided that the NEET shall not be applicable to Pre-Tib candidates as per the clause (i) of sub-section (1) under section 14 of National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020 (14 of 2020).

(ii) In order to consider for admission to under-graduate programme for an academic year, it shall be necessary for a candidate to obtain minimum of marks at 50 percentile in the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test for under-graduate programme held for the said academic year:

Provided that in respect of,-

(iii) candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, the minimum marks shall be at 40th percentile;

(iv) candidates with specified disabilities under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (49 of 2016), the minimum marks shall be 45 percentile in the case of General category and 40 percentile in the case of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes:

Provided further that where sufficient number of candidates in the respective category fail to secure minimum marks in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test held for any academic year for admission to under-graduate programme, the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine in consultation with the Central Government may at its discretion lower the minimum marks required for admission to under-graduate programme for candidates belonging to respective category and marks so lowered by the Central Government shall be applicable for that academic year only.

4. Learned Senior Counsel for petitioner submits that it is incumbent on National Commission for Indian System of Medicine to request the Central Government to lower the minimum marks required for admission to undergraduate programmes when sufficient number of candidates in their respective category fail to get admission in BUMS Course. He submits that National Commission for Indian System of Medicine is failing in its duty by not requesting Central Government to lower the cu