Supreme Court scrapping medical test not to hit Telangana, Andhra Pradesh students

Hyderabad/New Delhi: The Supreme Court ruling on Monday cancelling the All India Pre-Medical and Pre-Dental Test citing malpractice will not affect students in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

This is because TS and AP do not contribute 15 per cent of their medical and dental seats to the all-India quota offered under AIPMT, due to implementation of Article 371(D) which reserves seats only for locals. The third state in this category is Jammu and Kashmir.

Undivided AP had stayed away from the AIPMT since its inception. Even after bifurcation, Article 371(D) continues to remain in force in both TS and AP as per AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

There is a provision for TS and AP students to write AIPMT, provided they submit an undertaking to CBSE, which conducts AIPMT, that they are not eligible for seats in TS and AP and are willing to forego seats in the two states.

For this reason, AP and TS students shy away from writing the AIPMT, as it would result in losing 50 per cent of seats in TS and AP for the sake of 15 per cent seats at the all-India level; which is comparatively more difficult than the Eamcet.

Students, numbering a few hundreds, who are of TS and AP origin but belong to other states and come for coaching in corporate colleges, mostly located in Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Vizag, appear for AIPMT. They are not eligible for MBBS seats in TS and AP.

Earlier, observing that malpractices in the AIPMT had vitiated the examination, the Supreme Court cancelled the test and directed the Central Board of Secondary Education to conduct a fresh one in four weeks.