SC to hear fresh plea on MBBS, BDS entrance exam today

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a fresh plea of few states, including Jammu and Kashmir and some private medical colleges, that they be allowed to conduct their pre-scheduled test for admissions in MBBS and BDS courses on Tuesday.

“Let these applications be heard tomorrow by the bench concerned,” a three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur, said when a battery of senior lawyers, including K K Venugopal and Gopal Subramaniam, mentioned fresh applications for hearing.

Subramaniam, appearing for J&K said the entrance test being conducted by the state administration be allowed to go on as per schedule on the ground that it has been granted a special status.

Venugopal, who represented some private medical colleges of Karnataka, made similar pleas that the pre-scheduled entrance test may be permitted to go on alongside the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET).

Similar requests were made by the counsel representing Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. All the fresh pleas would be heard on Tuesday by another Bench, headed by Justice AR Dave, which had recently recalled its earlier order and permitted NEET to be conducted.

The Apex Court had on April 29 said that the entrance test for admission to MBBS and BDS courses for the academic year 2016-17 would be held as per the schedule through a two-phased common entrance test NEET on May 1 and July 24. On April 28, the court had rejected opposition for holding NEET by states, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, UP and Association of Karnataka Medical Colleges, besides minority institutions like CMC, Vellore.