Medical admissions: Maha’s deadline extension plea to be heard on Thursday

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court will hear Maharashtra government’s petition seeking a deadline extension to fill up vacant seats in government and private medical and

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court will hear Maharashtra government’s petition seeking a deadline extension to fill up vacant seats in government and private medical and dental institutes on Thursday.

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Maharashtra had sought time till Friday, but with the final verdict likely only on October 6, the state might seek more time to finish the process.

On Monday, the court heard two petitions -- from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and granted MP extension till October 10.

“As we have no option but to wait till Thursday, we might have to ask for more time to complete the admission process. The process has already been delayed by many days,” said Dr Pravin Shingare, director of the Directorate of Medical Education & Research (DMER).

Based on last week’s SC verdict, the DMER released its first merit list to fill up 350-odd vacant seats in 10 deemed institutes in the state. The list comes after the SC regularised admissions in deemed institutes and ordered the rest of the vacant seats to be filed by the DMER via a common admission process.

“We are allotting all 350 seats in the first round and are hoping there will be no seats left for the second round,” said Shingare.

Meanwhile, the DMER has filed a contempt of court case against MGM , Navi Mumbai, for conducting their own rounds of counselling and admissions, despite an apex court order against it.