NEET Stands, No Separate Medical Entrance Exam In States, Says Top Court

New Delhi: Undergraduate admissions to medical courses can only be done through the NEET (the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test), the Supreme Court said today, turning down an appeal by state governments and medical colleges to modify its earlier order.

States, the court emphasized, cannot conduct separate entrance exams.

On April 28, the court had said NEET will the common entrance test for medical courses across India. No state or college will be allowed to conduct parallel or separate exams.

The court, however, said students who appeared in NEET-1 May 1 can be permitted to appear for NEET-2, but they will have to forego the results of NEET-1.

The NEET-1 was meant for those who had applied for the All India Pre-Medical Test or AIPMT. Those who hadn't applied for it, were allowed to sit for the second phase of the NEET exam on July 24. The results are expected to be out latest by August 17.

NEET was made the common entrance test for undergraduate medical courses after a large number of complaints came in of malpractices in the admission process.

So far, in absence of a common entrance test, states and private colleges were holding their own entrance exams and imposing their own criteria on students, who were being forced to sit for scores of tests.

Around 9 lakh students took various tests for 50,000 medical seats across the country last year.