Mumbai: In an attempt to bring in transparency in the medical admission process, the Bombay high court on Thursday gave its seal of approval to guidelines to be followed by private unaided medical colleges across the state.
A division bench of justices Dhananjay Chandrachud and R.S. Mohite held that merit would be the sole criteria for admissions and will be based on marks obtained at the Common Entrance Test conducted by the state or Association of Private Colleges.
More importantly, the HC has said that the admission monitoring committee, better known as the Pravesh Niyantran Samiti, will vet admission to every seat in the private colleges, except the 15% NRI quota ones.

The association will also conduct three rounds of admissions through a single window centralised process. Vacant seats, if any, will be filled by individual colleges, again only after the AMC approves it. All the applications and the final list will be put up on a website to ensure transparency.
The HC also approved a schedule for admissions for this year. The first list will be declared by the AMC on August 19, the second on September 4, and the third on September 20. The admission process for vacant seats will be undertaken by individual colleges on September 24 and the AMC will have to approve the list by September 29, a day ahead of the September 30 deadline set by the Medical Council of India.
From next year, the HC said, the admission process will begin from July 3, 2007. The court’s orders came on a petition by the Association of Unaided Private Medical Colleges seeking modifications in the guidelines prescribed in May 2006.
Meanwhile, a circular issued by the medical education department (MED), making it binding for MBBS students seeking admission to postgraduate courses to work at least a year in rural areas, has come in for stringent criticism on the grounds that it discriminates between students of government and private medical colleges. As per official records, there are 18 governmentcivic medical colleges, while 14 are privately owned.

On July 31, the MED issued a circular which said students of government and civic-run medical colleges will have to first complete a year’s rural service at the centre prescribed by the state government and only then will they be eligible to appear for the common entrance test for postgraduate courses.
On February 28, 1996, the MED had prescribed that MBBS students will have to serve in the rural areas for a year if they are selected in the CET for postgraduate courses. Then the government enhanced the duration of postgraduate courses from three to four years. On July 31, the MED revoked the February 1996 circular.
However, students of government and civic medical colleges have objected to the circular. They felt the government promulgated the circular to oblige the powerful lobby of private medical colleges. “The new circular is completely silent on the eligibility norms for students of private medical colleges,’’ a final year MBBS student said.

The student said when the examination conducting body was the same for all, the state government could not discriminate between students of government/corporation and private medical colleges. “At a point when we are facing tough competition in the field of medical education, students of private medical colleges will be at an advantage,’’ he added.
Secondly, he said students of government and civic-run medical colleges have to submit a bond stating in the event his services were required by the state government after his graduation, he will be available without any preconditions. No such bond was ever taken from the students of private colleges and deemed universities. “We should have a uniform law. All circulars must be uniformly applicable to students of government and private medical colleges and deemed universities,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, alarmed by the possibility of students challenging the circular in court, the MED has already filed a caveat before the Mumbai, Nagpur and Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court.