The Maharashtra Government has requested the Indian Medical Council (IMC) not to conduct the admissions to medical and dental courses through the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and instead continue with MH-CET for this year.

The Supreme Court had on April 11 recalled its controversial judgement scrapping single common entrance test for admission to MBBS, BDS and PG courses in all medical colleges and restored the NEET.
Making a statement on the issue in the Legislative Council in reply to a point of information raised by Sanjay Dutt (Congress) soon after the Question Hour, Medical Education Minister Vinod Tawde said NEET is to be held on May 5, so there was very little time left for the state to join it.

“Since the NEET is based on CBSE syllabus, the government will have to upgrade its HSC syllabus and then Maharashtra can join the NEET from 2017,” Tawde said.

The final decision on the issue will be taken at a meeting convened by the Union Health Ministry today, he said. Tawde said when the IMC issued a notification in 2012 that admissions would be through NEET, the Maharashtra government moved the Supreme Court and the High Court, and the NEET was not enforced in 2012. In 2013, the admissions were done through NEET. But after Christian Medical College, Vellore, moved the SC, NEET was again scrapped, so in 2014 and 2015 the admissions in Maharashtra were conducted through MH-CET.