Gandhinagar

Amid the ongoing legal battle on NEET exam and related uncertainty, Gujarat Government today announced that the GUJCET exam 2016, for admission in the medical and dental colleges of the state, would be held as per the earlier schedule on May 10.

Addressing a press conference here state government spokesperson and Health Minister Nitin Patel said that the Gujarat Common Entrance Test or GUJCET exam would be held as per the schedule on May 10. It has been decided after the discussion with the chief minister and education minister.

‘Over 68000 students have to take the exam and they would take it. Hopefully the Supreme Court, which has sought the opinion of the center, would take a lenient view on it this year,’ he said.

Notably, the Medical Council of India (MCI) today requested the Supreme Court to allow the states to conduct separate medical admission tests for 2016-17. However, the Centre has sought time from the apex court till Monday to file its reply.

The state government has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against NEET exam across the country for medical and BDS college admissions.
The Supreme Court had yesterday asked the Centre whether states should be allowed to hold their own exams for admission to medical and dental courses this year. Many states had argued before the top court asking for the singular, centralised test, NEET, to be deferred this year.

On April 28, The Supreme Court cleared the decks for holding of NEET in two phases pn May 1 and July 24 for the academic year 2016-17. The result for both phases are to be declared on August 17 and admissions to be concluded by September 30. On the very next day the center moved court seeking modification of order to allow state governments and private colleges to hold separate entrance examinations for the academic year 2016-17. The court declined to issue an urgent order to modify its directive even as the central government cited “practical difficulties” in conducting the exam for the 2016-17 session. On May 1, the CBSE conducted the first phase of NEET in which around 6.5 lakh candidates appeared. On May 3 hearing a fresh review plea of some states the apex court asked the union Health Ministry and MCI to respond to the plea.

Yesterday, the court clarified that private colleges would not be allowed to conduct separate exams for medical admissions.

Gujarat has also requested the court to hold the NEET exam in local language.

– DeshGujarat