President signs NEET-UG ordinance; decks cleared for admissions

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 24

Confusion surrounding medical and dental undergraduate admissions is set to end with President Pranab Mukherjee today signing the controversial ordinance exempting state governments from the requirement of conducting the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test this year.

President signed the ordinance after seeking detailed clarifications on the scope of the executive order from the Health Ministry and on sound legal opinion. The ordinance comes days after the Supreme Court had mandated the conduct of single-window MBBS and BDS exams for all private and government institutions this year.

A gazette notification on promulgation of the ordinance by the President was issued in the evening.

“Private college seats, except those under state government quota, have to be filled by NEET-UG,” Union Health Minister JP Nadda said on Tuesday.

“Ordinance doesn't exempt anyone from NEET-PG exams to be held in December; exemption is only in respect of UG stream and for state government boards. States that had deferred NEET-UG after Supreme Court's order can now either schedule their own tests or join NEET. States that had conducted  their own tests can now go ahead with admissions."

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The assent to the ordinance paves the way for state governments to go ahead and conduct their own undergraduate medical and dental college admissions. Six states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra and Telangana, had already conducted their own exams before the May 9 judgment ordering a uniform central test.

Admissions in these states were on hold. Many other states like Punjab, West Bengal and UP had deferred their state board exams following Supreme Court’s orders. The court had declined repeated pleas of states to allow them time to sort out concerns over a CBSE conducted central test.

Concerns included 30 per cent variation in the syllabi of most state boards and CBSE, as also lack of time for central board to print NEET-UG question papers in all vernacular languages along with Hindi and English, current languages for the central test.

Subsequent to the court's denial, state governments and political parties stormed Parliament over the issue of "injustice to state students vis-à-vis CBSE students" and sought executive action for redress of concerns. Health Minister JP Nadda then held a meeting with state counterparts who overwhelmingly backed ordinance route to clear the confusion since the Supreme Court is in vacation and time for admissions running out.

Under MCI rules, undergraduate medical and dental college admissions have to conclude by September 30 every year.
Now, with Presidential assent, CBSE will notify the second phase of NEET-UG, which was scheduled on July 24. Since notification of the test stands delayed due to the ordinance issue, CBSE may postpone NEET-UG phase two by few days. Board sources said they will notify the new exam dates on AIPMT website. Students can follow the website for details.

Meanwhile, the Centre will issue a detailed notification on the ordinance and what it means.
Broadly, the ordinance exempts only state governments from NEET-UG ambit for one year. They will still have to conduct NEET for postgraduate medical admissions this November.  It does not exempt private medical colleges but does exempt state government quota seats in private colleges from being filled through NEET-UG merit list.

All 15 per cent AIPMT quota seats in state government colleges will have to be filled through NEET-UG list. Around 4000 seats fall in this category. Overall India has 412 colleges teaching MBBS of which 220 are private.
Students who took NEET-UG phase 1 can take NEET-UG phase 2 to improve their scores but will have to run the risk of foregoing their phase 1 performance. Repeat exam takers will be finally judged on their second phase marks.