In a significant order, the Supreme Court today rejected pleas of state governments and minority institutions to allow them to hold separate entrance exams for MBBS and BDS courses for the academic year 2016-17 saying only NEET provides for conducting such test for admission to these courses.

The apex court put to rest all confusion by refusing to modify its April 28 order by which it had allowed Centre and CBSE to conduct a single common entrance test for admission to MBBS and BDS courses through National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET).

The top court had approved the schedule put before it by the Centre, CBSE and Medical Council of India (MCI) for treating All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) fixed for May 1 as NEET-1. Those who have not applied for AIPMT will be given opportunity to appear in NEET-II on July 24 and the combined result would be declared on August 17 so that the admission process can be completed by September 30.

Around 6.5 lakh students took up the NEET-I test held on May 1.

The apex court rejected the contentions of the state governments, private medical colleges and also the minority institutions like Christian Medical College Vellore and Ludhiana that they have the legislative competence to hold separate entrance tests.

“Prima facie, we do not find any infirmity in the NEET regulation on the ground that it affects the rights of the states or the private institutions. Special provisions for reservation of any category are not subject matter of the NEET nor rights of minority groups are in any manner affected by NEET.

“NEET only provides for conducting entrance test for eligibility for admission to the MBBS/BDS course. We thus, do not find any merit in the applications seeking modification of order dated April 28, 2016,” a Bench comprising justices A R Dave, Shiva Kirti Singh and Adarsh Kumar Goel, said.

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