In a blow to the Government, court allows self-financing Medical Colleges to allocate seat based on NEET Exam

Kochi, August 26: Kerala High Court allows self financing managements to allocate seat on merit or scores based on NEET Exam. The self-financing managements could invite applications and admit students for Medical seats. The Court had also stayed the order on admission of management quota seats.

Earlier the talks between the government and private self-financing medical college managements remained inconclusive with the Kerala Private Medical College Association (KPMCA) not accepting the government’s decision to conduct a common admission counselling to all MBBS seats, including management quota in self-financing medical colleges.

The private management had called for unifying the fees in the wake of National Eligibility cum Entrance test (NEET), which the government did not agree.

The Union Health Ministry had earlier issued a directive that admissions to self-financing medical colleges in the state should be from a common list prepared by the state government based on NEET. The admission supervisory committee headed by Justice J M James had also endorsed the decisions of the Centre and asked the government to go for a common counselling.

The KPMCA had opposed the recommendation of the James Committee pointing out that many states, including Karnataka, had allowed self- financing medical colleges to conduct admissions to management quota on their own.