New Delhi, July 18: The Supreme Court has blocked moves by India’s apex medical regulator to impose a national entrance examination for admission to medical colleges across the country in a ruling hailed by some but decried by others.

The court today quashed notifications by the Medical Council of India to hold common entrance tests for admission to both undergraduate MBBS and dental courses and post-graduate MD, MS, or MDS courses.

The court said admissions made this year on the basis of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test-UG (NEET) held on May 5 this year or the test for PG courses held in November-December 2012 would not be affected.

The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, who is retiring today, in a majority 2-1 verdict quashed the notifications for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

The majority verdict by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Vikramjit Sen said that the MCI notifications violate Articles 19, 25, 26, 29, and 30 of the constitution dealing with the right of private and minority educational institutions to administer themselves.

Justice A.R. Dave said he did not share the view of Chief Justice Kabir and Justice Sen. “Holding of the (test) is legal, practical, and is the need of the society. Hence, I dissented,” Justice Dave said.

The ruling follows 115 petitions filed by associations of private and minority institutions in several states challenging the MCI notifications for common entrance tests and arguing that state and private institutions should determine their own admission processes.

The proposal for common entrance tests for admissions to more than 32,000 UG seats and an estimated 20,000 PG seats nationwide had triggered an intense debate with some arguing it would reduce stress on students and curb corruption in medical education.

But sections of medical educationists have warned that the diversity in Class XII level education standards across different states and rules for admissions make a single test impractical and could even hurt students.

“We admit students into medical college exclusively on the basis of their scores in physics, chemistry, and biology in Class XII board exams,” said Thiruvengadam Gunasagaran, dean at the Saveetha Medical College, Chennai.

“We draw up a merit list and the cut-offs are as high as 98 per cent,” Gunasagaran told The Telegraph.

“We’ve had this practice for many years and it is very successful model. Why should students in Tamil Nadu be forced to take an examination?”

Doctors also point out that multiple examinations may actually reduce the stress on students. “Despite the problems of many exams and much expense, it means students have many chances,” said Sanjay Pai, a senior pathologist at the Columbia Asia Hospital, Bangalore.

“I know someone really good who fared badly in one exam on one day, but now has to wait a whole year to reappear,” Pai told this newspaper.

But proponents of the common entrance route have decried the ruling.

“I’m shocked by this decision — this effectively kills an attempt to improve the admission process,” said Kunchala Shyamprasad, a cardiothoracic surgeon and former member of a Union government task force on medical education.

“This is a setback to efforts to ensure only meritorious candidates get seats, he said.

But Justice Dave disagreed with the other two judges and upheld the NEET, saying the policy was “legal” and it would stop corrupt practice of undeserving students getting admission by paying huge capitation fee or donation.

The majority verdict said that common test seems “attractive” but it is “fraught with difficulties” and it would “perpetuate” divide between urban and rural students in the name of giving credit to merit.

Justice Dave, in his dissenting judgement, said the NEET was not only legal but practical and is the need of the society for ensuring more transparency and less hardship to the students eager to join the medical profession.

“If only one examination in the country is conducted and admissions are given on the basis of the result of the said examination, in my opinion, unscrupulous and money-minded businessmen operating in the field of education would be constrained to stop their corrupt practices and it would help a lot, not only to the deserving students but also to the nation in bringing down the level of corruption,” he said.

The majority verdict said that enforcing a common entrance test would have “the effect of denuding the state and private institutions, both aided and unaided, some enjoying the protection of Article 30 (Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions), of their powers to admit students in the MBBS, BDS and the post-graduate courses conducted by them”.

The CJI and Justice Sen said that policy of common entrance test directly affects the right of private colleges, particularly minority institutions, to admit students of their choice and said that MCI is not empowered to conduct the NEET.