Supreme Court Rules Against NEET-I students’ re-appearance for NEET-II

In a ruling administered by the Supreme Court of India, by Justices A R Dave, Shiva Kirti Singh and Adarsh Kumar Goel, students who have appeared for NEET – I medical entrance examination on May 1, 2016 are not permitted to re-appear for the second phase of the exam scheduled to be held on July 24, 2016.

The bench had initially also hinted at allowing states to conduct their own medical entrance tests in India, which was then deferred till May 9, 2016 when Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar would apprise it about the stand of the Centre. The court said that the issue with regard to those students who had appeared or who are due to appear in examinations conducted by the States in accordance with their State laws, shall be decided after hearing the Solicitor General take it up with stakeholders.

The Medical Council of India or MCI is also against the conducting of medical entrance exams in states. However, they have now changed their stance to permit it for ‘only’ 2016.

The apex court has earlier had forbidden unaided private medical colleges to go ahead with their pre-scheduled tests for admission to MBBS & BDS courses in 2016. The states opposing NEET had reacted negatively to this ruling stating marked differences in syllabus for the state entrance tests and the NEET. The states that opposed the conduction of NEET included Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Association of Karnataka Medical Colleges, besides minority institutions like CMC, Vellore. The Apex Court also stressed that all medical examinations in 2016, which have already taken place or slated to be conducted separately stand scrapped.

But according to Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand who attended the hearing on behalf of CBSE, assured that the first phase of NEET 2016 was conducted smoothly. The first phase of 2016 NEET exam was attended by 6.5 Lakh students approximately.