New Delhi: The Central government has approved an ordinance to defer the implementation of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical and dental courses for state governments and their affiliated institutions for this academic year.
The executive order is aimed at partially overturning for one year a Supreme Court verdict which said all government colleges, deemed universities and private medical colleges would be covered under NEET.
The ordinance, once promulgated, will enable state governments and individual institutions like AIIMS to conduct their own admission test this year. Students of state government boards will not have to sit for NEET on July 24. They, however, will have to become part of the uniform entrance exam from next academic session, government sources clarified.
The exam will be applicable for those applying for Central government and private medical colleges. The first round of exams under the new NEET format was already held on May 1.
Health Minister JP Nadda is likely to meet President Pranab Mukherjee to explain him about the need for the ordinance.
The decision to issue an ordinance was taken in the aftermath of several meetings between Union Health Minister JP Nadda and state health ministers. The Central government had earlier held two rounds of hectic deliberations to build consensus before taking the Ordinance route.
Last month, the Supreme Court had passed an order that students need to take only one common entrance test, the NEET, for entry to medical colleges, following a large number of complaints about corruption in a situation where all state governments and private medical colleges held their own exams.
However, several states had said the implementation of the NEET should be deferred by a year.
