In a decision that would impact the future of lakhs of medical aspirants, the Supreme Court on Monday recalled its 2013 order that had quashed the single entrance test for admission to all private and Government medical colleges in the country. Now, the Medical Council of India (MCI) is expected to write to the Central Government and various stakeholders to conduct common entrance test from this year itself.
The decision has come at a time when the Centre is preparing to hold the common medical/dental entrance examination for admission to MBBS/BDS courses in Government colleges. The court order has paved way for the Centre to explore the possibility of conducting the single test, popularly known as the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), for all medical colleges from the current academic session.
On July 18, 2013, a three-judge Bench by a 2:1 majority scrapped the NEET on a petition by private medical colleges led by Christian Medical College, Vellore. The decision triggered major controversy after the dissenting judge remarked that the judgment was passed in a hurry without discussion as the then CJI was due to retire. Further, an article had appeared on the day of the decision which predicted the order giving rise to speculation that the judgment was leaked prior to its pronouncement. The MCI sought review of the order on the ground that the decision failed to take note of past decisions passed by the apex court on the subject.
A five-judge Constitution Bench comprising Justices AR Dave, AK Sikri, RK Agarwal, Adarsh K Goel, and R Banumathi, while setting aside the majority decision of the three-judge Bench, said, “The majority view has not taken into consideration some binding precedents and more particularly we find that there was no discussion among the members of the Bench before pronouncement of the judgment.” Incidentally, Justice Dave, who had dissented with the majority view in the 2013 order, was part of the five-judge Bench.
The Centre had kept in mind the interest of students while announcing NEET as they were required to take several entrance tests across the country conducted separately by private medical colleges, association of private medical colleges, State colleges, besides the common entrance test (CET) of CBSE.
The court refused to give elaborate reasons for the earlier decision passed by a Bench of then Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir and Justice (Retd) Vikramajit Sen. Dealing with MCI’s review petition, the five-judge Bench said, “After giving our thoughtful and due consideration, we are of the view that the judgment delivered in CMC case needs reconsideration. We do not propose to state reasons in detail at this stage so as to see that it may not prejudicially affect the hearing of the matters.”