Modification plea later, NEET on May 1: SC

New Delhi

The apex court, which had indicated it will give an urgent hearing for modification of Thursday’s order, later said it was not going to have a bench for hearing it on Friday. The court said it will go into the issue of modification in due course after the parties file their applications in this regard.

Justice AR Dave, before whom the matter was mentioned by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said, “We are not having the bench. Let the exam go on. Let them file the applications.” When Justice Dave said that the matter would not be heard immediately, he was sitting in a different bench. Earlier in the day, the Centre had approached the apex Court seeking modification of its Thursday’s order to allow state governments and private colleges to hold separate entrance examinations for MBBS and BDS courses for the academic year 2016-17.

The bench had then indicated of hearing the matter later in the day by the same bench which had passed the order on Thursday. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had suggested that the order passed by the apex court on Thursday allowed holding of a two-phased single common entrance test for MBBS and BDS courses through NEET on May 1 and July 24 but there appear to be some genuine difficulties and there was a need for some change in the order.

He suggested that the first phase of NEET scheduled for May 1 be scrapped and all the students be allowed to take the exams on July 24. Rohatgi said there was a need to modify Thursday’s order as there was confusion arising out of it. The apex court had cleared the decks for the holding of NEET in two phases for the academic year 2016-17 in which around 6.5 lakh candidates are likely to appear.

It had approved the schedule put before it by the Centre, CBSE and the Medical Council of India (MCI) for treating All India Pre-Medical  Test (AIPMT) fixed for May 1 as NEET-1. It said those who had 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 Sept 30.

A bench comprising Justices AR Dave, Shiva Kirti Singh and AK Goel had pronounced the order on Thursday after rejecting the opposition for holding NEET by the states, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, UP and Association of Karnataka Medical Colleges, besides minority institutions like CMC, Vellore which had contended that NEET cannot be imposed on them.