HSC Students Approached HC Over NEET Syllabus

Central government announced the conducting of common entrance examination for the engineering and medical courses across the country for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced the syllabus for the examination.

A group of Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) students has approached the Bombay High Court challenging the decision of the central government and the Medical Council of India (MCI) to conduct a singe entrance examination for admission to all undergraduate medical colleges.

The HSC students have also challenged the power of the MCI to conduct entrance examinations for such admissions, as also the final core syllabus for the exam.

He decision to conduct the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) through two amendments to the Medical Council of India Regulations on Graduate Medical Education (MCI-RGME). The amendments replace the entrance tests conducted by Maharashtra at present an other entrance tests conducted by the deemed universities.

The amendments stipulate that candidates from across the country will have appear fro the NEET and will have to get a minimum of 50% of marks to eligible for MBBA Course.

The petitioners claim that the syllabus prescribed from the central board for the NEET is vastly different from the syllabus of the state board. They also point out that students also have to study for the board examinations and in some cases for engineering entrance tests. The students also question the inadequate number of examination centres, point out that there are no centres in districts from where a large number of students would appear fro the test, such as Kolhapur, Solapur, Sangli and Raigad.

Also, while questioning the power of the MCI to hold an entrance test, the petition contends, "The Indian Medical Council Act under which the impugned regulations are made does not empower or delegate any power on the IMC to hold a common admission process for regulating admission to medical colleges".

A Division Bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A A Sayed has asked the central government and the MCI to file affidavits stating their stand and has slated the matter for hearing after two weeks.