MP govt cancels NEET 2017 medical dental admissions; Counselling to begin again

Bhopal: Admissions of students to medical and dental colleges through National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, (NEET) 2017, were cancelled by the Madhya Pradesh Government on Wednesday after the Supreme Court rejected the state's petition, challenging the High Court's August 24 decision in favour of the admission of non-domicile candidates.

The counselling will now commence from August 31. The apex court's directive to the authorities has asked for a new merit list to be issued and the process completed in 10 days.

"We will follow the court orders. The directorate of medical education found 34 students, who had mentioned the name of other states in the NEET form, and took admission in the state quota seats in MP," DME, Joint Director, Shashi Gandhi said.

The uproar over admissions happened when several aspirants alleged that a number of students with a non-domicile status had managed to managed to get themselves admissions in the state's medical institutions on the basis of fake domicile certificates.

When the Directorate of Medical Education turned a deaf ear to those complaining, despite them having submitted names of the wrong doers, the complainants moved the High Court and the judicial body was quick to grant a stay on the matter.

The high court ordered the state to conduct counselling, select the list of names eligible under the state quota by going through and confirming information given on the NEET Form.

The court also clarified that the information provided by the candidate in the NEET form with regards to their residence was to be treated as final in accordance with Rule 3(5) of the admission rules and the authorities on confirmation of domicile were to proceed with the task of redrawing the list.

The state government later moved the Supreme Court, which refused to take up the order of the High Court.

"The 34 students were found in the first counselling list. The number would be increased in the second and final counselling. We moved to the court before the second counselling and we are happy that we could have saved the rights of MP students," complainant and activist Vinayak Parihar said.

The Counselling process had undergone a cancellation last year as well reports HT.