NEET row: Centre may approach SC to defer common medical entrance test over 'practical differences' in implementing it

Representatives from all states agreed that there were practical difficulties in implementing the NEET from the current year.

New Delhi: The central government is likely to move the Supreme Court requesting it to postpone the common medical and dental entrance exam, National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), to next year,said reports on Tuesday.

According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the development comes a day after Union Health Minister JP Nadda assured to look into all issues raised by the states pertaining to the common medical entrance test following an all-party meeting in this regard.

Importantly, key political parties had asked the Centre to defer the implementation of the NEET as the country’s only medical entrance test for at least a year after Nadda met state government officials and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sat with representatives of political parties.

“It is the case of some of the states that boards are unequal, their languages are dissimilar. Can those who are dissimilar in language and unequal be placed on the pedestal of quality and asked to give the same exam? We will have to see how we deal with that particular issue,” Jaitley said.

On his turn, Nadda said the future course of action would be formulated “soon” as the Centre was committed to bringing in transparency in the medical education system and removing alleged malpractices.

“We will be considering the three problems that were put forward by the representatives. One, the ongoing state exams. Two, language and three, different syllabus for state exams. We will approach the court after consultations,” Nadda said.

Representatives from all states agreed there were practical difficulties in implementing the NEET from the current year and urged the Health Minister to appeal to the court to let the centralised test take effect from the 2017-18 session.

The report, quoting the Union Health Ministry sources, said the need for consultation was felt after several parliamentarians expressed resentment over holding the common entrance exam for pre-medical (MBBS) and pre-dental (BDS) courses at a short notice.

A day before the meeting, Nadda had said the Health Ministry was hoping to find a solution to address the concerns of lakhs of medical aspirants and their parents.

The Supreme Court had on April 11 paved the way for the Medical Council of India to conduct the NEET from the 2016-17 academic session for MBBS and BDS courses across the country.

Earlier this week, the apex court also turned down a batch of appeals by states seeking to conduct their own medical admission tests and ruled that only the NEET would enable students to get admission to MBBS or BDS studies.