The schedule for the two-phased National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) to be held on May 1 and July 24 remained unchanged on Friday despite the Centre, under pressure from different State Governments, rushing to the Supreme Court citing its inability to conduct the common admission test in vernacular languages due to paucity of time. Intriguingly, the Centre had on Thursday expressed its readiness to conduct the exams.
However, the fate of medical entrance exams already conducted by State Governments so far remained uncertain. The issue might be decided on May 3 when the court is set to hear a bunch of petitions by States and private medical colleges on NEET’s validity.
Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told a Bench of Justices AR Dave and Adarsh Goel that the three-judge Bench which passed the orders on NEET should hold an urgent sitting later in the afternoon as several issues required to be “thrashed out”.
Speaking for CBSE, Rohatgi said, “Some of the southern States do not know Hindi. The NEET is to be held in English and Hindi. In 2013, NEET was held in a large number of languages.
Since time is short, NEET cannot be held in vernacular languages. This will amount to insidious discrimination against the students.”
He was joined by lawyers appearing for States and private medical colleges, who said there was utter confusion among students who have prepared to write State medical entrance tests and other entrance examinations conducted by reputed colleges in the country.
Rohatgi espoused their concern and said, “Nobody has decided yet whether minority institutions like Christian Medical College can hold their own exam. There is nothing in the order that examinations already held by States should not be scrapped. Tamil Nadu even has a law by which medical admissions take place without any entrance test. These issues need to be thrashed out.”
As a way out, the A-G proposed two solutions. Either, the NEET could wait for the present and the common admission test would be conducted on a single day on July 24. In the alternate, he suggested, “Admission tests in those States which are currently being held in vernacular languages should not be scrapped.”
The Bench, which considered the request of the A-G, gathered after lunch and informed the parties that the order passed on Thursday will remain for the present. “let things go on and let exams be conducted as scheduled. We will hear and decide if anything needs to be done on May 3.”