The Supreme Court Friday agreed to hear a plea that has sought directions to the Centre and others, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), to organise the remaining rounds of the INI CET counselling without any further delay. The Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI CET) is for admission to Post Graduate (PG) courses of certain AIIMS and other medical institutions.
The plea said that INI CET is conducted by the AIIMS, New Delhi, and a notice was issued by the premier medical institute on September 19 this year conveying its decision to cancel the open round for INI CET July 2022 session. The petition came up for hearing before a bench of Justices S K Kaul and A S Oka, which issued notice and sought responses from the Centre, the National Medical Commission, AIIMS, New Delhi, and others. The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on October 14.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan along with lawyer Tanvi Dubey appeared for the five petitioners, including three who have completed MBBS and have secured ranks in the INI CET for the current session. Sankaranarayanan told the bench that out of 900 odd seats which are there for these institutions, 747 are vacant. "The counsel for the petitioner states that in the process followed, more than 700 seats are lying vacant. Notice, returnable on October 14," the bench said.
In the plea, the petitioners have said that the September 19 notice came as a "surprise" to several candidates who were expecting seats in one of the premier institutes including AIIMS and JIPMER through the open and on-spot round of counselling in the INI CET exam. It said INI CET is a bi-annual computer-based test for admission. The plea said the INI CET exam was conducted on May 8, 2022, and the results were announced on May 14. It said the first round of counselling was scheduled from August 5 to August 20 while the second round was from August 27 to August 31.
The plea alleged that the notice was arbitrary and discriminatory because no intimation was given to the candidates conveying the possibility of cancellation of the open and on-the-spot admission round. "The candidates who didn't register in the first or second round, waiting for the open round- had no idea, whatsoever, that the same will be cancelled. The candidates registered on the basis of the conditions provided in the Information Bulletin, which clearly provides for three rounds of counselling. The candidates had no indication that the open round of counselling will be cancelled," it said.
It said the decision to cancel the open and on-the-spot admission round of counselling is adversarial to the interest of several candidates as the seat allocated to them for this year will hold no validity for the next session. The plea said the future of several candidates is currently at stake because of the abrupt decision to cancel the further rounds of counselling.
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