Government’s effort to bring private medical and dental colleges offering post-graduate and undergraduate courses under a uniform examination system suffered a light blow on Monday with the Supreme Court allowing the colleges and institutions that had conducted their own entrance tests to announce the results as well. By its earlier order of December 13, 2012, though the court allowed tests to be conducted, it had put an embargo on declaration of results.
For thousands of PG medical course aspirants, the order came as a huge relief. With May 31 being the last date for PG admissions, those colleges which had conducted individual entrance tests without yielding to the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) conducted by the Medical Council of India and Dental Council of India, would now be able to proceed with admissions for this academic year.
The Bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, Justices AR Dave and Vikramajit Sen, which had concluded hearing the private colleges, Universities and states on the Government’s decision to impose NEET on autonomous private educational institutions, clarified in its nine-page order that its final judgment on the validity of NEET would arrive by July 4. Deadline for admissions to undergraduate courses is September 30 and hence they would be bound by the judgment of the apex
court in July.
The bench said, “We modify our order of December 13 and allow the results of the examinations already conducted to be declared to enable the students to take advantage of the same for the current year.” Ironically, this prayer was earlier rejected by the Court which subsequently has had a change of heart.
The order said, “The students who aspire to gain entry into the medical colleges at the MBBS and BDS and the post-graduate levels, have been caught in the legal tangle for no fault of theirs and are the victims of policy decisions.”
Another factor was noted by the Court, “Without fresh entrants into the post-graduate courses, even for a year, the hospitals are likely to be adversely affected on account of lack of doctors to directly take care of the patients in the hospital.” To safeguard the interest of students as also the interest of hospitals, the Court thought it “just and equitable” to lift the bar imposed by its December 13 order for this year’s entrance test.
With the final word on NEET to be out by July 4, those private colleges/institutions or Universities which adopted a wait-and-watch policy do not have an opportunity now to conduct the test and may have to abide by NEET, if the same is upheld by the apex court.