The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved verdict on validity of the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to MBBS/postgraduate/dental and postgraduate courses.
Earlier, a Bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices Vikramajit Sen and Anil R. Dave heard arguments, spread over four months, from counsel for several private medical colleges/associations and certain State governments.
In December 2012, the court permitted private medical colleges and associations to conduct their own entrance tests but made it clear that they should not declare the results.
Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, several associations of private medical colleges, Christian Medical College, Vellore; DD Medical College and DD Hospital, Tamil Nadu; and individual colleges had filed petitions in the respective High Courts and obtained an interim stay against NEET applicability to them.
Aggrieved by these orders, the Medical Council of India filed petitions seeking transfer of these cases to the Supreme Court to avoid multiplicity of proceedings. The court, while staying all further proceedings, issued notice to the respondent colleges/States/associations seeking their response.
In this batch of cases, the MCI said the NEET would avoid multiple entrance tests and minimise corruption and irregularities in admissions.
