VIJAYAWADA: The State government is likely to knock the doors of the Supreme Court over the implementation of GO 550 as the High Court of Hyderabad has set aside the para 5(2) of GO 550 paving way for admissions into medical colleges of Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana States.
Meanwhile, NTR University of Health Sciences is planning to start the second phase of counselling this week and finish the admission process by August 31 as per the instructions of Medical Council of India (MCI).
According to sources, discussions over filing a petition in the Supreme Court are still continuing. The university authorities are holding talks with the State government in this regard. Depending on the government’s decision, the university authorities will take a final call on the counselling process.
As per the directions of MCI, all the phases of counselling and admission process should be completed by August 31. If it is not completed by that time, all the remaining seats will be left vacant in both government and private medical colleges. If the State government files a petition in the Supreme Court, the verdict should come at least 10 days before the last date of admissions.
If at all the verdict or the order gets delayed then the counselling process may not get completed as per the MCI deadline, due to which a large number of students may lose the opportunity of getting medical college admission.
Speaking to TNIE, S Appala Naidu, Registrar of NTRUHS, said, “It is the State government’s decision to implement GO 550, but the High Court has issued clear instructions to drop it, as the reserved quota is exceeding 50 per cent and unreserved students are losing the opportunity. On the verdict of High Court, the State government officials are discussing whether to file a petition in the Supreme Court or not. We are expecting the release of notification for the second phase of counselling this week.”
On July 30, 2001, the then government issued GO RT 550 on seat allotment in engineering and other professional courses, stating that the open category seats are to be filled first based on merit, irrespective of the reservation category.
After the filling of the open category seats, reserved seats are to be filled as per the norms. It also stated that in case if a reserved candidate secures seat in the open category on merit basis and leaves the seat for better opportunities in reserved quota, that particular vacant seat has to be filled with a candidate from the same reserved category on merit basis. However, the High Court ruled out its implementation stating that the unreserved candidates are losing their opportunities as the reserved candidates are getting admissions exceeding their quota due to the implementation of the GO.
A total of 49,253 candidates have appeared for the NEET 2018 across the State. Of the total, 35,732 candidates qualified. Of the total qualified, 13,370 candidates have registered for State medical counselling, which is over 50 per cent less than that of the previous year. Of the total 32,392 qualified candidates in 2017, nearly 29,000 registered for counselling process.
