NEET verdict: health ministry seeks legal opinion to file review petition

The Union health ministry has sought legal opinion on whether it can file a review petition on the Supreme Court order quashing common entrance test for admission to MBBS, BDS and post-graduate courses in medical colleges.

Top health ministry officials on Thursday discussed the Supreme Court order and asked for legal opinion before initiating further action on the matter, sources said.

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 National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET) this year for the under graduate courses conducted by CBSE on behalf of Medical Council of India (MCI).

With the apex court quashing the notification issued by MCI for holding NEET, the long-standing proposal of the Health Ministry to hold a common entrance test for all medical colleges has also been brought to a nought.

The health ministry had started the process of holding NEET for MBBS, BDS and post-graduate medical courses in 2009.

The Supreme Court in its order today scrapped holding of NEET, paving the way for private colleges to conduct their own examination.

The NEET has been dogged by controversies all along when some states earlier objected to holding of the exam only in one language and sought its holding in different regional languages.

Some states also opted out of the all-India quota, while 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.

Meanwhile, 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 on July 20, while the counselling process for the state quotas would be completed by August 2.