Date:08/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/08/stories/2006090823920100.htm

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Private colleges' entrance test `invalid': panel

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: The Admission Supervisory Committee headed by the former High Court Judge P.A. Mohammed declared the entrance test conducted by the consortium of private medical colleges `invalid'. The committee recommended to the Government to take appropriate action benefiting the students. The report was finalised by the committee on Thursday night. It will be submitted to the Government on Friday. "The entire admission process for the MBBS course adopted by individual private medical colleges is not merit-based and therefore invalid,'' the committee observed.

The panel found that admission to the 50 per cent management seats was not fair and transparent. The committee also found that the test was against the observations made by the Supreme Court in the P.A. Inamdar case. Merit was not the criteria used for admitting students in the management quota, the committee said. The entrance test was a hidden process, it said. The advertisements for the test were not published in major newspapers. Several students could not apply since it was not widely publicised. The committee found that the rank list prepared by the consortium was not made known to the students.