Govt considering review petition on SC order on Medical exams

The Health Ministry is contemplating filing of a review petition on the Supreme Court order quashing common entrance test for admission to MBBS, BDS and post-graduate courses in medical colleges.
The Ministry has sought legal opinion on the apex court's verdict on the basis of which further action will be taken, top sources said.
The Supreme Court, in its order yesterday, scrapped holding of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), paving the way for private colleges to conduct their own examination.
Students seeking to pursue medical courses will now have to sit for separate examinations for private universities and colleges and shell out a big amount before taking admissions.

Over seven lakh students took the NEET this year for the under graduate courses conducted by CBSE on behalf of Medical Council of India (MCI).
Online counselling process for MBBS admissions on the basis of NEET exam is underway and the first round result under the all-India quota would be out tomorrow. The counselling process for the state quotas would be completed by August 2.

The Health Ministry had started the process of holding NEET for MBBS, BDS and post-graduate medical courses in 2009.
The NEET has been dogged by controversies all along with some states earlier objecting to holding of the exams only in one language and seeking conduct of tests in different regional languages. Some states also opted out of the all-India quota.

Private universities and colleges opposed to the government proposal sought more time to prepare themselves for the all-India exam. They later challenged the MCI notification in the apex court.