The Supreme Court on Friday said that the entrance test for the admission to MBBS and BDS courses for the academic year 2016-17 has to be held as per the schedule through the single common entrance test National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) on May 1 and July 24.

The order implied that all government colleges, deemed universities and private medical colleges will be covered under the NEET and those examinations which have already taken place or slated to be conducted separately stand scrapped.

A bench comprising Justices A R Dave, Shiva Kirti Singh and A K Goel had pronounced the order yesterday after rejecting the opposition for holding NEET by the states, of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Association of Karnataka Medical Colleges, and minority institutions like CMC, Vellore, which had contended that NEET cannot be imposed on them.

The apex court order had also revived the government's December 21, 2010 notification for holding a single common entrance test through NEET with a clarification that any challenge on the issue would directly come before it and no high court can interfere in it.

The Centre had approached the apex Court seeking modification of its yesterday's order to allow state governments and private colleges to hold separate entrance examinations for MBBS and BDS courses for the academic year 2016-17.

The apex court, in the morning indicated that it will give an urgent hearing for modification of yesterday's order, but later said it is not going to have a bench for hearing it today.

Justice A R Dave, before whom the matter was mentioned by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said, "We are not having the bench. Let the exam go on. Let them file the applications."

The apex court had approved the schedule put before it by the Centre, CBSE and the Medical Council of India (MCI) for treating All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) fixed for May 1 as NEET-1.

It had said that those who had not applied for AIPMT will be given the opportunity to appear in NEET-II on July 24 and the combined result would be declared on August 17 so that the admission process can be completed by September 30.

In its petition, the NGO Sankalp Charitable Trust had said that the Centre, MCI and CBSE were dilly-dallying in implementing the court's order on implementing the National Eligibility Entrance Test.

By Premji