JODHPUR, Dec. 20 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday declared the admission of students to the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course in Rajasthan for the 2016-17 academic year illegal, as the state had unilaterally lowered the qualifying percentile. The court imposed a fine of Rs.10 lakh on the government and Rs.10 crore each on 10 private colleges. A division bench of justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi decided to regularise the degrees of students who already completed their course, considering them victims of administrative lapses. The case stemmed from the state's 2016 decision to lower the NEET-UG percentile, first by 10 points and then by 5, to fill vacant BDS seats. "...The colleges committed blatant illegality and wilful violation of the 2007 Regulations while admitting students beyond 10+5 percentile, thus warranting strict punitive action. Further, the State of Rajasthan also acted without any authority of law while granting relaxations and failed to timely inform colleges of the decisions of the Central Government and the Dental Council of India (DCI)."...