New
Delhi:
The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it will conduct from August
20 to October 10, 2021 the counselling for the NEET-MDS admissions, for which
exams were held last year. Taking the Centre's statement on record, a bench of
Justices DY Chandrachud and M R Shah disposed of the matter. At the outset,
senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the petitioners, informed the court
that Centre has in its affidavit said that they will conduct the counselling
from August 20 to October 10, 2021.
The
counselling schedule has been released after seven months of the conduct of the
examination for which results were declared on December 31, 2020. On August 9,
the top court had asked the Centre to apprise by Wednesday when it will conduct
counselling for the NEET-MDS admissions for which exams were held on December
16, 2020.
The
top court had said that now that the Centre has approved OBC reservation in
medical seats when it will conduct the counselling. 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 the Medical
Counselling Committee (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.
(Except
for the headline, this story has not been edited by Careers360 staff and is
published from a syndicated feed.)
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