Guwahati, May 24: Two days before the joint entrance exams, Gauhati High Court today passed a landmark ruling which may redefine medical education in Assam.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Jasti Chelameswar and Justice Hrishikesh Roy endorsed Dispur’s new criteria for admission to MBBS and BDS colleges of Assam and dismissed two writ petitions that challenged it.

The government had proposed that candidates aspiring to sit for the joint entrance exam must have at least 60 per cent marks in physics, chemistry and maths instead of the present 50 per cent and should have cleared the Plus 2 exam in one sitting.

The entrance tests will be held on May 26 and 27.

After two days of intense arguments that started yesterday, the division bench ruled that the state government had the jurisdiction to incorporate additional qualification norms to select better students and its action could not be termed as arbitrary and irrational as contended by the petitioners.

The directorate of medical education was represented by Devajit Saikia, Anita Verma and B. Gogoi, while the petitioners were represented by senior counsel Niloy Dutta and A.B. Choudhury.

Saikia said the government had constitutional powers to stipulate/prescribe additional qualifications, apart from the minimum qualification laid down by the Medical Council of India (MCI). More importantly, the new criteria did not dilute or contradict the council’s norms. The new criteria will encourage better and meritorious students to join medical courses, which will eventually help boost the state’s health sector.

One of the writ petitions was filed by Sekhar Bhatra and others last week and the other by Sidharth Sarkar. The petitions challenged the new rules as irrational and arbitrary, which would deprive many from taking the tests.

Sarkar, on the other hand, contended that since the MCI had fixed the minimum marks at 50 per cent and had no single sitting restriction, the state DME had no powers to override the MCI qualifications.

No one from the petitioners’ side could be contacted, but those in the know said the admission battle was far from over. They said the ruling would be challenged in the Supreme Court.

On April 25, health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had announced sweeping changes to check the corruption and forgery-tarred process of medical admissions.