SC turns down students’ plea, medical entrance exam to be held tomorrow

Students said no time to prepare for exams due to different syllabus; SC says nothing stops one from preparing for exams.

The Supreme Court on Saturday refused to entertain a fresh plea by students against National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), meant for admissions in MBBS and BDS courses.

The apex court said that All India Medical entrance exam will be held tomorrow.

Students told the court that there is no time to prepare for exams due to different syllabus. However, the court said that nothing stops one from preparing for exams.

Earlier on Thursday, SC had cleared the decks for holding of NEET in two phases for the academic year 2016-17 in which around 6.5 lakh candidates are likely to appear.The apex court had approved the schedule put before it by the Centre, CBSE and the Medical Council of India (MCI) for treating All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) fixed for May 1 as NEET-1 and those who have not applied for AIPMT will be given opportunity to appear in NEET-II on July 24 and the combined result would be declared on August 17 so that the admission process can be completed by September 30.

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

The order, ending all uncertainty, was pronounced after rejecting the opposition for holding NEET by states including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Association of Karnataka Medical Colleges besides minority institutions like CMC Vellore which had contended that NEET cannot be imposed on them.

The apex court order also revives the Governments December 21, 2010 notification for holding single common entrance test through NEET with a clarification that any challenge on the issue would directly come before it and no High Court can interfere in it.