Sreya Kanugula
The High Court of Delhi took notice of the plea on the veterinary courses’ upper-age limit being placed as 25 years, concerning admission into the undergraduate degree course of Bachelors in Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry. It issued this notice to the Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Ministry and Veterinary Council of India.
This upper limit was placed right under Regulation 6 of the Veterinary Council of India’s Minimum Standards of Veterinary Education Regulations, 2016. This was done so by the central government.
The Division Bench of Justices DN Patel and Jyoti Singh heard the plea made by Gajanand Mishra, an aspirant petitioner, who was represented by Advocates Zoheb Hussain and Vivek Gurnani. The plea seeks a response from the Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Ministry and Veterinary Council of India upon this matter. They scheduled the matter to be heard on January 13, 2021.
The plea stated that the regulation created is a fundamental right’s violation, as guaranteed under the Constitution’s Article 14, 19 (1)(g) as well as Article 21. It states that the regulation creates two synthetic student classes with no reasonable nexus in sight to add to the maintenance of veterinary education’s minimum standards and hence, violates Article 14.
It also mentions how the regulation in question creates invidious classification of one medical class into two irrational classes of students, thereby causing deprivation. It deprives one of the classes higher than the ages of 25 and 30 belonging to both the general as well as the SC/ST/OBC categories from practising veterinary and medical education.
The plea mentions how the petitioner has participated in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test of 2020, by the passage of the SC’s orders upon the challenge made by several petitions on the upper limit set on age by the MCI for taking the exam in question.
The SC’s allowance on students aged above 25 to participate in the NEET entrance allowed the respondent to take it as well. The notification on being admitted into the BVSc and AH degree course is also upon merit basis as per the said NEET examination.
The argument made states that as the regulation limits the objective made behind the formulation of the 2016 regulations, it does not fit the regulations’ scheme framed around the maintenance of veterinary education standards either.
It further maintained that the imposed restriction on the right to pursue further training in veterinary profession above a certain age is not qualified under reasonable, as per the Constitution’s Article 19 (6).