Supreme Court asks Centre to confirm dates for NEET-MDS counselling

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to apprise it by August 11 when it will conduct counselling for the NEET-MDS admissions for which exams were held on December 16, 2020. A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah said that now that the Centre has approved OBC reservation in medical seats when it will conduct the counselling. Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, appearing for the Centre, said that it will need two weeks to work out the modalities and issue a notification in this regard.

“What is this. We have read last week that the Centre has approved the OBC quota. Now again you will take it to October or November. We will not allow this. You please tell us by Wednesday when you are going to conduct the counselling. We are listing the matter as the first item. You apprise us,” the bench said. On July 29, the Centre has approved announced a 27-per cent quota for OBCs and 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category in the All-India Quota (AIQ) scheme for undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses from the current academic year, 2021-22. On July 12, the top court had taken strong note of delay in holding the counselling; saying the Centre and others have been “dilly-dallying” for a year now.

It had said that these are qualified BDS students and why has Centre not held the counselling since last year. The doctors, having Bachelor in Dental Surgery (BDS) degree, had appeared in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)-MDS conducted on December 16 last year by the National Board of Examination (NBE) for admission to the Master in Dental Surgery (MDS) course. Besides the Centre and MCC, the bench had earlier also issued the notices to the Dental Council of India and the National Board of Examination (NBE).

The plea, filed through lawyer Tanvi Dubey, said that these doctors are challenging the “unjust and infinite delay” caused by the MCC in announcing the counselling schedule for NEET-MDS, 2021. The plea also sought a direction to the MCC to conduct a separate counselling for the NEET-MDS 2021. The results for admissions in PG courses for BDS candidates were also declared on the scheduled date, that is on December 31, 2020.

“However, after the declaration of the result, i.e., on 31.12.2020 until today i.e. 23.06.2021, there is no update regarding the counselling. It is most respectfully submitted that umpteen efforts were made by the Petitioners to get in touch with the Respondents in order to get an idea about the schedule of the counselling. However, there has been no update about the date of the commencement of the counselling,” the plea said.

It said the dentists, who are also registered with state Dental Council, have obtained provisional or permanent registration and have also undergone compulsory rotatory internship of a year in an approved or recognised dental college. “That around 30,000 BDS (dental) graduates appeared for the NEET-MDS conducted for admission to over 6,500 seats in the country and till date there has been no update for admissions in PG courses,” it said.

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