PANJIM: With admissions for MBBS and BDS courses slated to commence from June 27, a group of Goan students have filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court praying that admissions should not be made based on the Goa Common Entrance Test (GCET), which was conducted on May 10 and 11.
The petition filed by eight students, draws attention to the State case where GCET was held between the period of the Supreme Court judgement on National Entrance and Eligibility Test (NEET) and the Central Government ordinance, after which students were not given an opportunity for a fresh GCET.
In the petition, students have said that the GCET exam conducted by the State is invalid as it came after the Supreme Court order stating that admissions to all medicine and dentistry seats across the country be held based only on NEET.
They pointed out that GCET was held before the Centre’s ordinance that allowed admissions to State colleges to be held through their usual process only for 2016-17, and that the ordinance cannot be applied with retrospective effect.
The petitioners stressed on the fact that the State did not go for fresh GCET, despite the student’s performance being below average due to the confusion over the State and National entrance exam. The petition has been kept for mention on June 29.
The Goa government has already turned down the students’ proposal to conduct GCET afresh, stating
that it had filed in advance an intervention in the Supreme Court seeking relaxation for the current academic year.
Over 5,000 students had answered GCET for various professional courses including MBBS and BDS. After an initial delay, the first round of admissions for these two courses will commence from Monday, next week.
