CBSE NEET 2018: SC reserves order on plea challenging quota in PG courses

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on a bunch of petitions challenging the Medical Council of India’s (MCI’s) regulations dealing with the reservation for in-service candidates in admission to post-graduate medical courses in respect of 50 per cent seats allocated to states, according to a PTI report.

Regulation 9(IV) of the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations states that reservation of seats in medical colleges for respective categories in PG courses shall be according to the applicable laws of states and UTs and an all-India and state-wise merit list of the eligible candidates shall be prepared on the basis of marks obtained by them in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). It further provides that doctors in government service might be given weightage as an incentive of up to 10 per cent of the marks obtained for each year of service in "remote and/or difficult areas or rural areas, up to a maximum of 30 per cent" of the marks obtained in NEET, according to a PTI report.

The process for admission to undergraduate dental and medical courses across the country is likely to get more challenging. According to the statistics revealed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the number of total registrations for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) this year stands at 1.33 million (13.36 lakh), up from 1.15 million (11.5 lakh) who had applied in 2017. There has been an increase of almost 200,000 in a year. With a limited number of seats available for aspiring students, the competition keeps getting tougher, reported the Hindustan Times.

Around the nation, there are 60,000 seats available at MBBS and BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) institutes for medical and dental programmes.

According to the experts, this phenomenal surge in the number of registrations can be attributed to a number of reasons, including more and more people opting for NEET scores or national-level examinations instead of state-conducted Common Entrance Tests (CETs) for health science courses. Also, the number of scholarships and policies provided by the central and state governments have helped a higher number of scholars in clearing secondary and higher secondary education across the country, said an HT report. NEET is a medical entrance test conducted at the national level under the supervision of the CBSE Board.