MCI recommendation: Health Ministry clears common test for admission into medical colleges
In a significant
move, Union Health Minister J P Nadda has approved the Medical Council of
India’s recommendation for an amendment to the Indian Medical Council (IMC) Act
that will empower it to hold a nationwide common medical entrance test.
The health
ministry has prepared a draft cabinet note to be circulated among the
ministries.
The proposed
amendment will pave the way for a one-country, one-medical entrance plan, for
both undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses in all colleges, including
private colleges and deemed universities.
The MCI has told
the government that it could either notify an existing examination, like the
All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT), as the common test or notify a new one.
The IMC Act
governs the functioning of the MCI, which is the medical education regulator.
Under the current Act, its role is limited to finalising the medical
curriculum, while the states and individual colleges can devise their own
admission procedures.
But in October
last year, the MCI general body passed a proposal to amend the Act in order to
empower it to conduct a common entrance test.
An earlier attempt
to hold a common entrance test did not pass muster with the Supreme Court as it
was undertaken by just notifying a change in the rules, without actually
amending the Act.
The National
Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) (PG) was held in November-December 2012
and NEET (UG) in May 2013. About 80 petitions were filed by minority
institutes, private colleges and some state governments, which went to the
Supreme Court.
Quashing NEET in
July 2013, a bench of then Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices Vikramjit
Sen and Anil Dave ruled: “The role assigned to the MCI under Sections 10A and
19A (1) of the 1956 Act vindicates such a conclusion. As an offshoot, we
have no hesitation in holding that the Medical Council of India is not
empowered to actually conduct the NEET.”
The MCI general
body has now recommended to the government that it should be empowered to
prescribe such a test — whether it is conducted by the National Board of
Examinations, like in the case of NEET, or some other body is a call that can
be taken later.
Students seeking
admission to medical colleges — at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels —
often need to criss-cross the country, appearing for numerous entrance tests.
Sometimes, they allegedly have to pay huge sums as capitation fee. A common
entrance test has been a long-standing demand of students, but has been opposed
by private and minority institutes as well as some state governments.
The NEET plan too
faced opposition right from the start. The original plan was to implement it
for the 2012-2013 session but it had to be delayed because of opposition from
states. Giving in to their demands, the ministry agreed to conduct the test in
six regional languages — Tamil, Marathi, Assamese, Bangla, Telugu and Gujarati
— but private institutes still objected.
This time too,
even as the ministry is in the process of seeking opinions from other
ministries, sources said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has already
written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing
any such move.
