SC constitutes committee to oversee functioning of MCI

The Supreme Court on Monday constituted a committee of Justice (Retd.) R.M Lodha, Dr. Shiv Sareen of the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) and former CAG Vinod Rai to oversee the functioning of Medical Council of India (MCI) regarding entrance tests.

The apex court had on April 29 declined to issue any urgent order to modify its directive to hold the common all-India medical entrance test in two phases even as the Central Government cited 'practical difficulties' in conducting the exam for the 2016-17 session.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, along with the Additional Solicitor General, requested the bench that it was difficult to hold the NEET this year in two phases as state medical entrance exams were already scheduled.

However, Justice Anil R. Dave declined to issue any urgent directions on modifying the court's Thursday order and said it would not be possible to give a hearing to the Centre and a few states which wanted a green signal for their medical exams.

On Thursday, the court had fixed the timeline for conducting the NEET for admissions to MBBS and BDS courses and clarified that its directive will supersede all other orders relating to medical admissions.

With this clarification, the three-judge bench had made it unequivocal that all other admission tests, already held or scheduled for later, for admission to government colleges, deemed universities, private medical colleges, minority and linguistic minority colleges, stand scrapped.

The schedule was submitted jointly by the Union Health Ministry, CBSE and the MCI.

According to the schedule, the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) scheduled for May 1 was treated as first round of the NEET.

However, those who have not applied for AIPMT will be given opportunity to appear in round two on July 24.

The combined result will be declared on August 17, in order to complete the admission process by September 30 - the deadline set by the apex court in its previous orders.