Cancelling State PMT SC says something different
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 08, 2013: The scrapping of the State PMT scheduled to be held on Sunday, citing a recent Supreme Court verdict, has thrown up a cloud of uncertainties as the apex Court has not said that the test should not be held.

In its interim verdict passed on May 13 this year, the apex Court, after hearing different cases on the matter, asked institutions to publish the results of entrance tests which were put on hold by the same Court's ruling on December 13 last year.

The final decision on the validity of the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to MBBS/BDS and post graduate courses conducted by the CBSE would be delivered in July first week, maintained the SC, sources said.

The apex Court said that it was 'not touching the matter' where the examination has not been held, a point which legal experts opined amounts to saying that the State Government can hold the PMT before the final verdict is delivered.

Talking to The Sangai Express, a reliable source said that the Supreme Court had not said that the States cannot conduct its own PMTs and questioned what would happen to the aspirants if the Supreme Court rules out the validity of the NEET in its final verdict in July.

Cancelling the PMT, the State Cabinet decided to select MBBS and BDS nominees from the merit list of NEET-2013 conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Health Services Director Dr A Bijoy on Friday told reporters in the presence of Education Minister M Okendro that a number of cases were filed at the Supreme Court when the Medical Council of India (MCI) initiated a process for holding a National level eligibility test for aspiring medical students.

Bijoy said the apex Court subsequently issued a ruling saying that results of medical entrance tests held before May 13 may be announced but results of similar entrance tests held after May 13 should not be announced without its approval.

Accordingly, the State Government decided to select medical students based on the NEET results, he said.

Of the total 5333 Manipuri candidates registered for NEET, 4950 appeared in the test and 2956 were declared qualified.

Stating that CBSE is expected to give separate merit lists for the State and the country, Bijoy informed that State students would be selected to the 30 seats and 85 seats available at RIMS and JNIMS respectively for studying medical courses based on the State merit list given by CBSE.

5756 candidates had taken forms for the aborted MBBS/BDS entrance test and Health Services collected Rs 40 lakhs as entrance fee.

Out of this amount, Rs 23 lakhs have been spent in preparing for the entrance test.

It is learnt that the Health Department would refund the entrance fee to all the candidates and counselling would be conducted after receiving the State merit list from CBSE.

Comment