Supreme Court nod to Medical Council of India common counselling stand

Thiruvananthapuram: The Supreme Court on Thursday okayed the Medical Council of India’s stand on common counselling and allowed the same in minority institutions for post-graduate admissions from the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Examinations. The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by minority medical college managements challenging the MCI order. “Let there be common counselling in minority institutions for PG medical admission,” the SC said while agreeing to include a representative of the minority institution in the panel. The counsel for minority institutions argued that they should be allowed to admit minority students while the deemed universities argued for a separate system for admission in their institutions.

The court is expected to pronounce the verdict on the petition filed by deemed varsities on Tuesday. Earlier, the MCI had submitted before the court that common counselling should be conducted for all seats, including those in religious-linguistic minority colleges and deemed universities for the 2017-18 both at the UG and PG level. The state government had also recently promulgated an ordinance insisting on admissions to all medical courses from the NEET, including self-financing medical colleges, strictly on the basis of inter se merit at both PG and UG levels.