President Agrees with Centre for ordinance of NEET

NEET Won't Apply To States For Now

NEET, the common entrance test for medical courses, will not apply to states for now. After much deliberation, President Pranab Mukherjee today signed off on the Centre's decision to put out an executive order to bypass a Supreme Court ruling that one exam would be held for students across India.

A team of Health Ministry officials waited anxiously this morning at the presidential palace Rashtrapati Bhavan, waiting to answer possible queries from Mr Mukherjee and hoping that he would sign off on the file before leaving for China.

The President was seen to be extra-cautious after the fiasco in Uttarakhand, where his decision to approve central rule was overturned by a court.

Health Minister JP Nadda cancelled a trip to Geneva to meet the President after he asked for clarifications on the need to bring an ordinance.

The executive order is aimed at bypassing the Supreme Court's ruling last month that NEET, or the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, will be held across India. The court had taken into account allegations of corruption in multiple medical entrance tests held by states and private colleges.

State governments strongly objected and asked the court to review its order, saying such an exam would place regional language students at a disadvantage. When the court rejected the request, the Centre decided to bring an ordinance.

A section in the Congress criticised Mr Mukherjee and alleged that he had accepted the Centre's recommendation in a hurry.

The assent of the President is still awaited for NEET

NEET ordinance gets President Pranab’s assent 

President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday gave his assent to the ordinance on uniform medical entrance examination NEET, ahead of his four-day visit to China. The ordinance was sent to the president on Saturday.

On Monday, the president had sought more information and clarification on a few points from the Health Ministry over the decision to bring an Ordinance on NEET, that seeks to keep state boards out of its purview.

The need for more information was conveyed to Health Minister JP Nadda who called on the President to brief him about the need for bringing the Executive Order before his visit to China.

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The meeting lasted for close to an hour and the minister is learnt to have briefed the President on three set of issues — different exams of state boards, syllabi and regional languages.

Health Ministry sources said that during the meeting some fresh information was sought by the President.

The sources later said that the additional information sought by the President has been sent.

The President had earlier asked Nadda’s ministry to explain the reason for taking the Ordinance route to keep state boards out of the ambit of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Nadda was to attend a global health summit in Geneva but had to cancel the trip to meet the President.

The Ordinance, cleared by the Union Cabinet earlier on Friday, is aimed at “partially” overturning a Supreme Court order which said all government colleges, deemed universities and private medical colleges would be covered under NEET.

The President has also sought the opinion of in-house legal experts on the Ordinance. The assent of the President is still awaited.

Clarifying that the exemption is only for the state government seats, government sources had said the state seats which are earmarked in the private medical colleges have also been exempted.

Different states earmark seats in various private medical colleges for state quota so that students from one state can get seats in another state.

The next phase of the exam is scheduled for July 24.

Nearly 6.5 lakh students have already taken the medical entrance test in the first phase of NEET held on May 1.

Health Ministry sources said that seven states will take medical exams as per NEET while in six other states, around 4 lakh students have already taken the examinations.

Centre issued ordinance for NEET

 Centre passes ordinance deferring common medical entrance exam to next year on 20-05-2016

Common medical entrance exam deferred this year, Centre to issue ordinance.

NEET Schedule

So far 6.5 lakh students have already sat for the first phase of NEET-1 held on 1st May 2016.

The next phase of the exam is scheduled for 24th July 2016. 

The combined result of NEET-1 and NEET-2 will be declared on 17 August 2016.

NEET I appeared students can appear NEET II

SC allows students who took NEET I to appear for NEET II

 The Supreme Court has today allowed those students, who appeared for NEET I, to take NEET II.

On the matter of letting the state governments hold their separate examinations, the court is likely to pronounce its order at 4:30 pm today.

The Court on Friday said that NEET-II, scheduled for July 24, will allow only those candidates who have not appeared in the May 1 NEET-I exam irrespective of whether or not they had filled up the forms.

According to the court order, CBSE’s AIPMT on May 1 has to be considered as first phase of NEET.

The apex court has already reiterated its view on private colleges holding their separate tests. “It is clarified that no examination shall be permitted to be held for admission to MBBS or BDS studies by any private college…”

  

The Medical Council of India, which had earlier opposed the plea of some states that they be allowed to continue with their entrance tests, told the court that they could be permitted “only for this year”. 

SC paves way for NEET

SC paves way for single entrance exam for medical courses

The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the decks for holding a single common entrance for admission to all medical and dental courses in the country.

The ruling by a bench comprising justices Anil R. Dave, Shiva Kirti Singh and Adarsh Goel comes just two days before the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is scheduled to conduct the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT).

With this order, AIPMT will be christened as National Eligibility cum Entrance Exam (NEET) but with a national mandate.

The order would imply that all government colleges, deemed universities and private medical colleges would be covered under NEET and those examinations which have already taken place or slated to be conducted separately stand nullified.

“We are running against time,” the bench said while reviving government’s 21 December 2010 notification for holding single common entrance test or NEET with a clarification that any challenge on the issue would directly come before the Supreme Court and no High Court can interfere in it.

Additional solicitor general Pinky Anand, appearing for CBSE, told the court that the exam would be held in two phases—on 1 May for those who have applied for the AIPMT and on 24 July for fresh candidates. It means CBSE will float rules and dates for a fresh test to be held on 24 July to galvanize any inconvenience to candidates. The combined results will be declared by 17 August. 

Around 650,000 students are likely to appear in the national entrance.

On 11 April, the apex court recalled its 2013 judgment that had declared NEET “illegal” and “unconstitutional” on the ground that it interfered with the right of private, minority and linguistic institutions to admit students.

Following the recall of the judgement, Sankalp Charitable Trust, a non-profit moved the top court on 26 April seeking clarity on holding a common national entrance.

The centre, CBSE and the Medical Council of India (MCI) assured the court that the test can be conducted this year.

The apex court’s ruling is intended to end uncertainty surrounding the admission test. Many states have, however, already announced their own entrance examinations for admission. The court briefly heard opposition to NEET by three states—Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh—before rejecting their pleas.

Andhra Pradesh is slated to conduct Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test on 29 April. Tamil Nadu has been admitting students based on marks obtained in Class XII since 2007.

The court ruling got a mixed response from medical colleges. While private minority institutions such as the Christian Medical College, Vellore insisted that NEET cannot be imposed on them, the top court did not agree.

“We welcome this wholeheartedly. Why should students take 11-12 entrance exams? This will be a huge relief. But this is only half a step. There should also be a common exit exam so that all doctors are of same quality,” said Ravi Kant, vice-chancellor, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow.

Many students took to social networking sites to complain that the exam cannot be announced merely two days in advance.

“I have already given Bihar’s state entrance and now we are told that admissions would be done through NEET. If a national entrance is for student convenience, where is my convenience?” asked Shabab Anwar, who is preparing for medical entrances for the last two years.

A five-judge bench headed by Justice Dave will, however, revisit the legality of NEET exam on 3 May and hear all states that have objected to the common entrance. Incidentally, Dave was also a part of the three-judge bench which scrapped NEET in 2013. He had delivered a dissenting opinion, upholding the government’s move to conduct a national entrance.

The government welcomed the court verdict. “We will enable MCI and CBSE to conduct the entrance exams in a manner and time that would not cause distress to students,” said J.P. Nadda, Union minister for health and family welfare.