SC makes CET mandatory for admission to Medical Courses

MCI has got an order from Supreme Court to implement the notification to conduct a Common Entrance Test (CET) for state and all medical seats from this academic session.

Justice RV Raveendran and justice AK Patnaik gave the order and mentioned that this direction would also be going to apply to all private medical colleges in the country. CET has to be held for both, undergraduate and post-graduate courses.

This test would minimize the stress level of the students who sit for several entrance exams.About four lakh students appear for 35,000 MBBS seats each year. Seventy-five thousand students appear for post-graduate medical admissions awarded through 20 different tests.

The petitioners’ advocate ADN Rao said: “As per the notification, MCI would nominate a body for conducting the exam. The results would specify a student’s all ranking as well as the state ranking. Depending upon the ranking the candidate would get admission either in the state college or a Central University.”

MCI’s move to introduce CET was opposed by state governments following which the Centre had initiated a process of consultation to resolve the differences on the issue. Though the court had, in an interim order on December 18 last year, allowed MCI to go ahead with the CET it had decided to hear the objections filed by various stakeholders.