Maharashtra's Private Medical Colleges Can't Conduct Own CET: SC

A plea to conduct its own medical common entrance examination by the private medical colleges in Maharashtra has been denied by the Supreme Court. The CET was supposed to be held for admissions into medical and dental colleges admissions in private medical colleges of the state.

Due to the dismissal of the plea, students will have to take up the CET conducted by the Maharashtra CET cell. Candidates shall be admitted to state and private colleges based on the common entrance test.

The Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fees) Act, 2015, that lays down the state CET clause, was challenged by the Association of Managements of Unaided and Private Medical and Dental Colleges in the Bombay HC in August 2015, and the case finally reached the SC. Though this petition was meant only for the medical postgraduate entrance test, the order is being seen as precedence for all other entrance tests that will be conducted by the state under the provisions of the new act.

A petition challenging the law itself is still pending in the HC. Association chairman Kamal Kishore Kadam said the apex court has asked them to wait for the outcome of the main petition, challenging the law. "We will see if it is possible to file a fresh petition in the HC. The government is taking away several powers given to us by a past SC order. They do not give us any money to run the institutes, how can they seek control over them?" asked Kadam.

"Some of our institutes are ready to run into losses, but we will not fill our seats with students allotted by the state government," he added.

A potential standoff seems brewing with a government official saying the state may act against institutes that refuse to admit students allotted by the competent authority as per the provisions of the existing act.