Plea to conduct State PMT : HC dismisses appeal, counselling process on
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 26 2013:
The Manipur High Court has dismissed the petition which sought the Court's intervention to hold the State PMT.
With the petition now dismissed, the Health Directorate has initiated due process for counselling of students selected as Government nominees for pursuing MBBS/BDS courses based on the result of NEET.
After all preparations were made for holding the State PMT on June 9, a Cabinet meeting held on June 6 decided to select MBBS/BDS students from amongst the NEET qualified candidates after cancelling the scheduled PMT.
Challenging the Cabinet decision, 10 students who applied for the aborted PMT filed a petition at the High Court seeking the Court's direction to hold the State PMT.
In the meantime, 25 NEET qualified candidates filed another petition seeking the Court's intervention so that due counselling is held in time.
The petitions were first examined on August 16 before the High Court issued a ruling today which dismissed the petition seeking the Court's intervention to hold PMT.
However, copies of the High Court ruling were not circulated till late evening today.
Senior Advocate RK Nokulsana who appeared for the 10 candidates said that even as the Court has announced dismissal of the petition, copy of the order could not be obtained.
One top-ranking official of the Health Directorate too said the same thing.
Meanwhile, another source informed that due process for counselling of students selected from amongst NEET qualified candidates has been initiated.
The counselling process would be fully completed by the first week of September.
It is estimated that the State would get 135 MBBS seats and 18 BDS seats this academic year.
Informing that some candidates based outside the State have collected counselling forms, the source informed that their applications would not be entertained if they are found not genuine Manipuri citizens after checking their domicile certificates.
On the other hand, the All Manipur MBBS/BDS 2013 Entrance Examination Parents Guardians Association secretary K Arun said that they would go to the Supreme Court even though the petition filed by the 10 candidates has been dismissed by the Manipur High Court.
In case the Health Directorate initiates any counselling process based on the NEET results, another case of contempt of court would filed at the Supreme Court for violating the Supreme Court ruling issued on July 18 this year, Arun added.