Supreme Court makes it only Neet for MBBS, dental seats

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that all admissions for undergraduate medical and dental courses for the academic year 2016-17 will have to be made only on the basis of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test to be conducted in July this year.

It refused to allow the states of Tamil Nadu (which has a law to admit students on the basis of higher secondary marks), Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana state, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and others to admit students in government colleges on the basis of common entrance tests either conducted or to be conducted.

A three-judge bench of Justices Anil R. Dave, Shiva Kirti Singh and A.K. Goel also turned down the plea of private medical colleges, deemed universities and association of unaided private colleges to permit admission in their colleges on the basis of entrance tests conducted by them for the 50 per cent seats. The bench thereby refused to modify its April 28 order that all admissions should be made strictly on the basis of Neet rankings.

The bench, however, permitted all those who had participated in Neet-I held on May 1 to again write the Neet-II exam to be held in July and said they have to give up their May 1 test.

The bench in its order said, “Prima facie, we do not find any infirmity in the Neet regulation on the ground that it affects the rights of the states or the private institutions. Special provisions for reservation of any category are not subject matter of the Neet nor rights of minority are in any manner affected by Neet. Neet only provides for conducting entrance test for eligibility for admission to the MBBS/BDS course.”