‘SUPREME COURT VERDICT ON NEET ‘–

What is NEET?
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test or NEET-UG is a qualifying entrance examination in India, for students who wish to study any graduate medical course (MBBS), dental course (BDS) or postgraduate course (MD / MS) in government or private medical colleges in India.

Q A
What is NEET?
  • The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test or NEET-UG is a qualifying entrance examination in India, for students who wish to study any graduate medical course (MBBS), dental course (BDS) or postgraduate course (MD / MS) in government or private medical colleges in India.
  • NEET-UG (Undergraduate), for MBBS and BDS courses, will be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
  • It was Introduced in 2010 through amendments to existing regulations relating to medical and dental admissions.
Objectives of NEET?
  • Saving students the trouble of writing multiple entrance examinations to medical courses in State-run and private institutions,
  • Curbing the increasing commercialisation of higher education in medicine, and
  • Ensuring a transparent admission process in private, unaided institutions which thrive on selling MBBS and postgraduate medical specialty seats to the highest bidder.
Why it was opposed?
  • It encountered opposition from two influential quarters.
  • One, State governments were upset with the implicit centralisation of medical education in the idea of a national test. They feared that NEET would undermine their reservation policy. Some like Tamil Nadu see all entrance tests as elitist and against the interests of poor and rural students.
  • And two, private institutions, especially those established by minorities, were against any interference in their admission process, arguing that their unfettered right to regulate their own admissions had been upheld by an 11-judge Supreme Court Bench in T.M.A. Pai Foundation (2002). When the institutions approached the Supreme Court, a three-judge Bench, by a two-one majority, agreed with them that the regulations introducing NEET violated their constitutional rights.
Recent verdict of Supreme Court?
  • Supreme Court has recalled a three-judge Bench’s 2013 order striking down the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and agreeing to hold a fresh hearing on a review petition by the Medical Council of India.
Implications of the judgement?
  • By this Supreme Court has now revived the idea of holding a national test to ascertain the aptitude and suitability of those seeking to study medicine anywhere in the country.

WORD FROM TEAM GS-SCORE –

Relevant for

Education of GS:2

For further detail Refer article titled “Reviving a good idea” from The Hindu dated April 15, 2016

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