Medical admissions: SC calls for stay till HC clears ST students’ doubts

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With the Supreme Court (SC) calling for a stay until objections raised by a group of students from the scheduled tribe (ST) category are cleared by the Bombay high court (HC), admissions to state undergraduate (UG) medical and dental seats have hit another roadblock.

A statement is expected from authorities today on whether admissions to all seats or only reserved seats will be stalled until the court makes its decision. The revised deadline for UG medical and dental admissions is September 8.

In the last week of July, students from scheduled tribe (ST) communities moved the SC, saying they were deprived of quota seats due to them because they could not produce caste certificates in time.

“The Apex Court has asked a principal bench at the Bombay high court to look into this matter and come up with a solution soon,” said Anand Rayate, commissioner, state Common Entrance Test (CET) cell.

This means further delay in the process of admissions, which have been stalled for almost two weeks since the announcement of the second list of seat allotments on July 30.

“There is no clarity on whether we should halt admissions to all seats or only those under the reserved categories. We will meet government officials as well as the director of the Directorate of Medical Education & Research (DMER) to decide on this matter and release a statement on Wednesday,” said Rayate.

Students usually get three days to complete their admission formalities after the announcement of an allotment list, but this year, the process has taken over two weeks due to confusion over newly-included seats in dental courses as well as floods in Maharashtra.

“The SC has given time till August 30 to solve the queries of ST students and after that, the CET cell has been given eight days to complete admissions. So we now have time till September 8 to complete the admissions process,” said Rayate.

The original deadline for completing the UG medical and dental admissions was August 18.