Thiruvananthapuram: The state government will accept online applications from NEET candidates for admission to MBBS seats in self-financing medical colleges from Monday based on the Supreme Court direction on Friday. The state will get the advocate-general's opinion on the further action needed.
The Supreme Court has asked the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE) to allow the self-financing medical colleges in the state to admit students from other states also.
The bench, including Justice S.A. Bobde and Abdul Nazeer, asked the CEE to keep the online application link live until May 20 for the same. The hearing on the case will continue on August 20. The court has allowed the Kerala Private Medical College Managements Association to approach the vacation bench before the hearing, if required.
In effect, the Supreme Court has stayed the clause in the prospectus of MBBS admissions to deny admission to other state students in private medical colleges here.
The last date to apply for admissions online was on March 31. However, as the prospectus mentioned that applicants should be a Keralite, no other state student had applied. The private colleges managements had then approached the court questioning this clause.
Advocates Shyam Divan and Sulfikar Ali, who appeared for the managements, said that the admission clause was not in line with the Constitution. If Kerala model was extended to other states, the students would be able to go for higher education only in their states. The Supreme Court, therefore, ordered to admit other state students and accept online applications.
As per MCI schedule, the first phase of counselling should take place from June 25 to July 5. There are 2150 MBBS seats spread in 18 private medical colleges in the state. The state government and fee regulatory committee had fixed the fees in self-financing colleges between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 6 lakh. The managements also alleged that the fees in self-financing colleges in state were less compared to other states.
