President Pranab Mukherjee has sought legal advice on the Ordinance to keep State boards out of the ambit of uniform medical entrance examination, NEET, for this year.
The President is seeking clarification on the ordinance, official sources said on Saturday, adding he is consulting in house legal experts on certain questions.
The ordinance, cleared by the Union Cabinet on Friday, is aimed at “partially” overturning a Supreme Court verdict which said all Government colleges, deemed universities and private medical colleges would be covered under NEET.
Clarifying that the exemption is only for the State Government seats, Government sources had said that state seats which are earmarked in the private medical colleges have also been exempted.
Different states earmark anything between 12-15 per cent seats in various private medical colleges for State quota so that students from one State can get seat in another State.
The remaining seats in such colleges are reserved for domicile students. Now with this Ordinance, the remaining seats meant for domicile students will come under NEET.
The Centre’s decision to keep the State boards out of the ambit of common medical entrance exam, NEET, has divided the medical fraternity in the country with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) welcoming the move while Delhi Medical Council (DMC) strongly opposing the ordinance alleging that corruption breeds in State-run medical colleges too.
A day after the Union Cabinet cleared the ordinance deferring the exams by a year for State boards, Secretary General of IMA, KK Aggarwal supported the move on the ground that there is no inequality in terms of curriculum or language barrier for students appearing both for State and central exams.
He, however, clarified that States can have their own views on the issue.
However, DMA, which is the State branch of IMA, opposed the ordinance alleging that corruption is prevalent in some Government medical colleges, and the states should not be allowed to continue with their separate entrance tests for MBBS and BDS courses.
“We strongly oppose the ordinance as there are some State Government colleges where corruption is prevalent, like it was in Madhya Pradesh.
“We want Supreme Court’s order on single entrance test NEET for admissions to the medical programmes across the country to be implemented to check alleged irregularities in the enrollment process,” said Ashwani Goyal, State Secretary of DMA.
Gurinder Singh Grewal. President of the Punjab Medical Council too minced no words, terming ‘unfortunate’ the Centre’s move to bring ordinance.
“It is unfortunate that the executive is in clash with the judiciary. When the Government had already submitted before the court that it was ready to go for NEET then what why this rethinking in the pretext of problems to the State boards. Medical education is in the Concurrent list and not the state subject. Infact, the ordinance sets a stage for showdown with the judiciary.”
Under pressure from several states, the Centre gave its nod for promulgation of an ordinance to keep state boards out of the ambit of NEET, for this year.
Once the ordinance is issued, students of State Government boards will not have to sit for NEET on July 24. However, private medical colleges will be covered under the uniform medical entrance examination.