Docs seek 3rd round of admission for NEET-SS
COURT’S CALL SC to hear plea on 500 vacant seats tomorrow
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear on Friday a petition for a third round of admission to more than 500 vacant seats in medical colleges for super-specialty courses done after postgraduation.
Among the 26 petitioners is SenthilNathan,anassistantprofessor in Chennai, who is determined to study for an MCh degree, or master in surgery.
He cleared thesingle entrance examination, called national eligibility cum entrance test (NEET),thisyear for enrollment inprivateandgovernmentmedical colleges in India.
Doctors such as Nathan write the NEET-super specialty for advanced studies — MCh and doctorate of medicine (DM).
The NEET-SS was held on June 10 and 11 and results were out on July 15. The first round of counselling for admission was held in August for 1,140 seats.
About 828 seats were not offered as states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana did not submit their vacancy lists.
Thetopcourtorderedasecond round and counselling was held fromSeptember14to16.Andhra Pradesh and Telangana submitted their lists this time.
But more than 500 seats remained vacant thereafter, according to Nathan, who is pitching for an “extended third round of counselling” to prevent these “precious seats from going waste”.
“Thegovernmentshouldtake steps to ensure that the 500 seats are allotted to deserving doctors and prevent a lapse of these precious seats,” he said.
Introduced last year to weed outcorruption in medicaleducation, NEET provides students rankings by which colleges offer admission through state-run counselling sessions.
The counselling for those clearingNEET-SSisdoneonline.
Seats fell vacant after the first counsellingas250studentsdidn’t report, citing various reasons such as not getting their preferredcollege.Somewereunwill- ing to sign a 10-year service bond mandated by several states.
Nathanandthefellowpetitioners’ hopes now rest on the Supreme Court’s three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud.
They filed the petition on September 18. Nathan is an MBBS from Sri Ramchandra Medical College and did a postgraduate diploma in obstetrics and gynaecology at Stanley Medical College. He then did his master of generalsurgeryatKilpaukMedical College. All these institutes are in Chennai. He is working as assistant professor at the instituteofgeneralsurgeryofMadras Medical College.