MBBS Admission Counselling postponed in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Medical Counselling for 700 MBBS seats in the management quota has come to a standstill with the latest decision taken by the Directorate General of Health Services and the state selection committee in Tamil Nadu to postpone admissions to the MBBS and BDS courses.

This decision has been taken in view of the latest Madras High Court order that has issued a directive to the Central Board of Secondary Education to grant 196 grace marks — four marks each for 49 questions — to all students who appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in Tamil Nadu this year. The order also instructs the CBSE to release a fresh list of NEET qualifiers within 2 weeks and that the ongoing counselling sessions "kept in abeyance" till then.

"Candidates are advised to keep checking the official website for updates," said the message from DGHS, Tamil Nadu

Secretary, NEET Selection Committee, Dr G Selvarajan, informed media persons that CBSE directives would decide all further course of action to be taken by them. He also announced that the first phase of counselling was over, and the next counselling session to begin on July 16 for admission to management quota seats, stood canceled.

"About 3,501 MBBS seats are filled now. Some BDS seats remain vacant as counselling was in progress. About 700 MBBS seats in management quota are left. Counselling for those seats will have to wait now," he told TNIE..

Meanwhile the Rajya Sabha MP T K Rangarajan on whose petition, the Madras High Court ordered the raising of 196 marks for Tamil aspirants who appeared for the NEET paper in Tamil, owing to translation errors has gone ahead and filed a caveat in the Supreme Court, on Wednesday.

This has been done in anticipation of the Central Board of Secondary Education's appealing for a stay on the Madras High Court ruling on NEET.

"The caveat is intended to ensure that no stay is granted on the high court order without hearing me," Rangarajan told the Times of India.

MP Rangarajan also wants a hike of seats in government and private medical colleges and adds that if the affected students get admissions in private colleges, the extra fees over and above the amount payable in government medical colleges be borne by the government. Rangarajan's move will now stand to benefit 24,000 students who wrote NEET in Tamil with the court ordering a 196 mark increase for each of these students.