TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Hearing the final arguments on the admission to the PG courses of the Goa Medical College, which are going on in the Supreme Court of India, the student-petitioners observed that those among them who had been admitted on the basis of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) have their admissions secured, even as the Apex Court came down heavily on the state government for its ‘adamant’ attitude that led to the confusion. However, the final order is still awaited.
While hearing the arguments, the Supreme Court said that out of the 40 students admitted by the Goa Medical College on the basis of their four and half year’s merit only 21 could be accommodated — 17 of them in unclaimed seats of the All India Quota in Goa and four in the unclaimed seats of the state quota left vacant during the counselling to fill the seats on the basis of NEET.
At an earlier hearing, the Medical Council of India had made it clear that it wasn’t willing to increase the number of seats and neither could it bring forward next year’s seats to this year.
The fate of the remaining 19 students who cannot make it to the PG courses is now uncertain.
The petitioners had approached the Apex Court arguing that despite clear cut instructions it the Goa Medical College went and admitted students on the basis of their four and half years merit. The Court, while scrapping NEET, had directed that this year’s admissions would be on the basis of NEET and that the NEET would be scrapped only from the following year.
The students who were admitted on the basis of their NEET scores filed a contempt petition in the SC, the final outcome of which will be known once the Supreme Court passes final orders in the matter.
The students who were admitted earlier on the basis of NEET, speaking to Herald on condition anonymity, said that they can now heave a sigh of relief after the SC has made it clear that their seats are secured.
There were widespread allegations – vehemently denied by the authorities including the chief minister personally – that the GMC had followed the merit list on account of students of influential persons not making it to the NEET list.
