Maharashtra NEET UG Counselling 2024: Candidates allege irregularities in college-level admissions

MUMBAI: Several MBBS aspirants were allegedly denied admission by a private medical college after Maharashtra, in a repeat of last year’s decision, handed over the final round of NEET UG counselling to the institutes.

The candidates, who showed up to claim the few vacant seats at SSPM Medical College in Sindhudurg on Tuesday, alleged that they were turned away for various frivolous reasons, such as having a low family income and seeking to pay the fees through a cheque instead of a bank demand draft (DD). In one instance, the candidate was allegedly refused enrollment for failing to pay the capitation fee demanded by the college.

The complaints have surfaced after the state Common Entrance Test (CET) cell, on October 31, announced that the seats available at private medical and dental colleges in the second and third stray vacancy rounds will be filled by the individual institutes, instead of the pre-decided online centralised method.

The National Medical Commission, the top regulator for medical education and profession, requires admission in every round to be managed by the designated central or state body. In Maharashtra, that is the Common Entrance Test Cell (Mah CET Cell) and the process is online at cetcell.mahacet.org. For the last admission season, NMC undertook a verification exercise for MBBS admissions made offline , in stray vacancy rounds.

However, in Maharashtra, the decision was prompted by the Bombay High Court (HC) directing the state to change the NEET UG counselling mode for the stray vacancy rounds to institute-level.

NEET UG Counselling 2024: Stray vacancy rounds

The eleventh-hour decision by Maharashtra CET Cell is similar to the one brought during the previous admission cycle, following a plea by the state's private medical colleges. They had claimed that their seats might go vacant.

The NMC later cancelled the admissions of 141 candidates who landed seats through this process, citing a violation of its directives.

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The Bombay HC's division bench of justices AS Chandurkar and Rajesh Patil held that NMC's circular prohibiting institute-level counselling and admissions can't supersede the state's 2016 admission rules. The 2016 rules permit filling up of vacant seats at institute level, after the regular, centralised rounds. Incidentally, the court in November last year, had ruled that the state had no authority to change the counselling mode to institute-level.

This year, as many as 111 MBBS state and institute quota seats were up for grabs in the institutional rounds. The bulk of them – 68 – was at Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences, Palghar, the state's sole college run by a non-profit company, which had moved HC seeking a change of counselling mode.

Maharashtra NEET UG Counselling: Denied seats

Much like last year, letting medical colleges admit aspirants at their level has led to accusations of opacity and irregularities in the admission process at SSPM College, which is run by BJP leader and member of parliament, Narayan Rane. The institute was, however, absolved of any wrongdoing by a state government inquiry on the previous occasion similar complaints were levelled against it.

Relatives of two waitlisted candidates, who visited the college on November 5 hoping to secure one of the nine available spots, told Careers360 that they were denied admissions despite their merit.

"I was asked to furnish an income certificate and income tax details even though there was no such requirement as we were seeking admission in the open category. After checking, the college authorities told us that my income is inadequate and I won't be able to pay for the subsequent years of the course. Assurances about my finances fell on deaf ears," said the father of one of the students.

The other candidate's father said that the college demanded a higher capitation fee. "We know that the spot admission round is all about money. Hence, we had negotiated a price through an agent. But after reaching the institute, the authorities asked for even more which was beyond our means. So, we were asked to leave," he said.

NEET Counselling: Maharashtra CET Cell, observers

A medical education counsellor, who had accompanied some of the candidates to the institute, claimed that the state authorities and the two state-appointed observers didn't offer any help despite repeated pleas.

"Many candidates were turned away for reasons such as carrying a cheque instead of a DD. The phone numbers of observers provided by the CET Cell weren't reachable. Despite an email and calls to the cell, no one intervened," he said.

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Dr Sudarshan Reddy, dean of SSPM College, didn't respond to calls from Careers360.

However, one of the observers at the institute, Dr Mahesh Suryranshi, assistant professor at Government Medical College, Sindhudurg, sought to defend the institute's actions and urged not to create any 'doubts' about the process.

"We properly made a merit list of the present candidates and allotted them seats after individual counselling. Some of the applicants were rejected due to deficiencies in the document. The college said that it couldn't accept the cheque as it was the last date of admission and that there was a risk of the seat going vacant (if the cheque bounced). I consulted officials at the CET Cell who agreed that the cheque couldn't be accepted on the last day of admission," he said.

The CET Cell's October 31 notice recommends four modes of payments – DD, cheque, NEFT and RTGS – with no mention of any restriction on cheques on any day.

Suryavanshi claimed that it's "understood" that cheques aren't permitted during the spot rounds.

When asked about the college denying admission for want of higher income, he said, "The college explained to us that there were past instances of some students not turning up after the first year of MBBS as they couldn't afford the fees, even if they managed to pay for the first year somehow. I conveyed this to the cell which asked us to submit a report."

Dileep Sardesai, Maharashtra CET Cell commissioner, acknowledged receiving complaints but said that they are awaiting the observers' reports. "We are in the process of compiling their reports and the Admission Regulating Authority (ARA) will act if required," he said.

Careers360 had earlier reported that ARA had faulted eight medical colleges , including SSPM College, for denying admissions in the third regular admission round for various reasons.