SC says No to pvt med college entrance tests
2016-05-06The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled out separate entrance tests conducted by private medical colleges for admission to their MBBSBDS courses this year, reports Amit Anand Choudhary. However, it said it would consider the plea of the states against NEET's implementation this year as students had been caught unprepared. The court asked the Centre, CBSE and Medical Council of India to suggest ways to accommodate the states, which pleaded that they had an obligation to conduct entrance exams for colleges run by them.
Court Says It Would Consider Plea By States Against Common Exam From This Year
The court had on April 28 made performance in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) the sole criteria for getting admission to government and private medical colleges and said the May 1 AIPMT would be considered as first phase of NEET. But this created confusion as by that time several states had already conducted entrance tests.
With a large number of private medical colleges and governments moving the SC seeking clarifications and modification of the April 28 order, a bench of Justices A R Dave, Shiva Kirti Singh and Adarsh K Goel on Thursday said, There is no question of permitting examinations by private colleges. Tests conducted by states continue to be under the court's consideration.
The court asked the Centre, CBSE and Medical Council of India to suggest ways to accommodate states, which pleaded that they had a statutory obligation to conduct entrance examination for medical colleges run by them. They also said students, particularly from rural areas, would not be able to compete for NEET as they had prepared for state examinations held in vernacular medium. Various states, including J&K, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, UP, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh told the bench that once they had conducted the entrance tests under the law, NEET could not have been imposed on them. Senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam and lawyer Sunil Fernandes, appearing for J&K, said the state enjoyed special status and it had been allowed to hold separate entrance test.
The bench, however, said states were free to fix eligibil ity criteria for admitting students. The Centre, which had earlier supported the states, batted for NEET and told the bench that a common entrance test did not violate state laws. Who is to be admitted, what should be the eligibility criteria and reservation criteria are to be decided by the states, solicitor general Ranjit Kumar said.
He, however, suggested that many students, who had applied for AIPMT but did not appear, should be allowed to appear in the second phase. The SG also suggested holding a composite test on July 24 .
CBSE counsel Pinky Anand said it was difficult to hold a composite test as the number of students would be huge. Around 6.5 lakh students had taken the May 1 NEET. The court adjourned hearing in the case to Friday .
Impact on private colleges
UP (Total colleges : 43)
Status : Test scrapped
Maharashtra (Total colleges : 25)
Status : Students to take govt conducted MHT-CET as scheduled
Karnataka (Total colleges : 54)
Status : State CET already conducted; uncertainty over pvt test COMEDK on 8 May
Kerala (Total colleges 10)
Status : Undecided
Tamilnadu (Total colleges 9)
Status : Awaiting SC final verdict on NEET
Madhya Pradesh (Total colleges : 22)
Status : Private test DMAT scrapped. Students will now take NEET.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (Total colleges : 35)
Status : Students will take govt conducted EAMCET
Punjab (Total colleges : 7)
Status : All colleges to conduct NEET
Rajasthan (Total colleges : 13)
Status : Tests scrapped. Students to take NEET.
West Bengal (Total colleges : 3)
Status : Will follow SC order
Odisha (Total colleges : 2)
Status : Written test not cancelled, colleges awaiting SC final verdict
(ToI)