Edu-leaders

The Supreme Court has agreed to the Medical Council of India’s (MCI) proposal to have a common national eligibility-cum-entrance test (NEET) for undergraduate and postgraduate medical college admissions from 2012-13 across the country.

Accordingly, students in Andhra Pradesh will no longer take the state's NTR University of Medical Sciences test for MBBS admissions. Andhra Pradesh's health and medical education department has given its written consent to the MCI saying that it will participate in the NEET from 2012.

Senior counsel Amarendra Saran said that the NEET for undergraduate courses would be held in April-May and that the council has already put up the core syllabus for the course on its website. The test for postgraduate courses would be held in next January-February. The core syllabus would be put up on the website in August.

According to reports, a bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik said that if all the rules were put in place, the council could go ahead and that the court had nothing to do further in the matter. It also disposed off the petition after this.

The MCI had last year proposed conducting the NEET from this session but it could not be implemented because of the Union Health Ministry’s opposition against the proposal in the Supreme Court.

Officials say that the test will not determine the reservation policy of the state.

Tamil Nadu has obtained an interim stay on the implementation of NEET in the state since a legislation cancelling the entrance tests for professional courses has been put in place. D.D. Medical College and D.D. Hospital, near Chennai, that had filed an application against the CET, also got a similar interim stay.