New Delhi: In a major relief to thousands of
medical students, the Supreme Court on Friday approved the
Centre`s proposal for their online counselling for admissions
to post graduate medical courses against all India quota in
government colleges, except those in Jammu and Kashmir and
Andhra Pradesh.
The move would benefit an estimated 25,000 students vying
for 5,245 post graduate medical and 168 Master of Dental
Surgery seats in the present 2012-13 academic year.
A bench of justices Deepak Verma and K S Radhakrishnan
passed the order after hearing senior counsel Ashok Bhan who
urged the court to grant permission for conducting the online
counselling from May 1, 2012.
The competitive examination for All India quota (50 per
cent) seats in government colleges is conducted by the All
India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. For
15 per cent All India seats of undergraduate (MBBS and BDS
courses), the examination is conducted by the Central Board of
Secondary Education (CBSE).
Bhan told the court that the government had taken all
steps for publicising the online counselling through the print
and electronic media besides the official websites.
According to the Centre, the proposed online counselling
will not make it imperative for the students to rush to Delhi,
Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkota and they can opt their choice
through the internet even while sitting at their homes.
This would enable the students save time, efforts and
money which they otherwise had to utilise earlier for visiting
the four metros where it is conducted every year.
The counsel said the National Informatic Centre had
developed the software for the counselling programme.
The Centre had sought similar permission for conducting
online counselling for the undergraduate medical courses on
which the court did not pass any order today.
The Centre told the apex court that the identification of
seats will be done by arranging them in alphabetical order,
besides state-wise and college-wise order.
It said the seats are proposed to be reserved for various
categories like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other
Backward Classes and Physically Handicapped categories in the
Central government institutions as per the rules.
The government further said presently there are only two
rounds of counselling with participation of lesser number of
students on the basis of a 1:4 ratio for post graduate courses
and 1:2 for the under graduate courses.
It added by introducing the online method with three
rounds of counselling, it expects to ensure "better
utilisation of all-India quota PG and UG seats and minimum
wastage of All India quota."
PTI
