PRESS RELEASE

DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

Subject:     Pre Medical Entrance Test 2004 for admissions in MBBS/BDS/BAMS/BHMS courses.

1.  The State Government has issued notification for conduct of PMET 2004 for admission to MBBS/BDS/BAMS/BHMS courses in Government and Private Medical institutions in the State of Punjab. The PMET as usual would be conducted by the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot on 25/7/2004 (Sunday). The salient points of the Notification are given in the following paragraphs:
 

2.  NRI Quota: There would be quota for NRI students to the extent of 15% in the private Medical institutions of the State. As regards government medical institutions, the number of NRI seats would be as follows:

                        Govt. Medical College, Patiala, Amritsar, Faridkot                                13

                        Govt. Dental College, Patiala & Amritsar                                               4

                        Govt. Ayurvedic College, Patiala                                                           4
 

3.  Government Quota/Management Quota: The seats in private medical institutions have been divided in the ratio of 50:50 between Government quota seats and management quota seats.  Both management quota seats and government seats would be filled up from the PMET merit and will have uniform fee structure. The only difference is that government quota seats would be filled up by the University whereas the management quota seats would be filled up by respective managements for which applications would be submitted to colleges directly. The 15% NRI quota is within the 50% management/minority quota.
 

4.  Minority Quota: There are 4 institutions in the State which have been categorized as minority institutions. These are Christian Medical College and Dental College, Ludhiana, Sri Guru Ram Das Medical and Dental colleges, Amritsar. The Government has provided 50% quota for minority students in these 4 institutions. The students belonging to Sikh and Christian community from all over India can participate in the PMET conducted by the State Government and compete for minority quota seats in these 4 institutions.
 

There have been press reports that Christian Medical College, Ludhiana and Sri Guru Ram Das Institutions were going to conduct their own separate test for filling up the minority quota seats. As per the Supreme Court decision in Islamic Academy Case dated 14/8/2003 the management quota seats/minority quota seats can be filled up in one of three manners:
 

(i)  The private/minority institutions can fill up the minority/management quota on the basis of PMET conducted by the University.  Or
 

(ii)  The association of all private and minority medical institutions in the State can come together on one platform and conduct their own separate Common Entrance Test for the management/minority quota.      Or
 

(iii)  An institution can conduct its own test only if it is more than 25 years old and has been conducting its own test and it has been permitted by Retired High Court Judge Committee.

The Supreme Court therefore says that as a rule there would be not more than two entrance tests in any State, one conducted by the Government and the other by the association of all private medical institutions including the minority institutions. The test by private institutions has to be conducted under the supervision of the retired HC Judge Committee. The SC felt that multiplicity of test put students to great hardships. The only exception was made for colleges which were more than 25 years old and they could conduct the test with the permission of the Committee

Sri Guru Ram Das institutions (SGRD) are not more then 25 years old and since the association of private colleges is not conducting any Common Entrance Test therefore the minority quota in SGRD institutions would be filled up on the basis of PMET conducted by the University. For this purpose, the Government has allowed the students belonging to Sikh community from all over India to participate in the University PMET and compete for the minority quota. This matter was considered by the Committee headed by Mr.Justice G.R.Majithia on 15/6/2004 and the committee was of the view that SGRD institutions could not conduct their own test in view of Supreme Court decision dated 14/8/2003 and the minority quota seats will have to be filled up from the University PMET.
 

As regards CMC Ludhiana, the committee took notice of their letters intimating that they were going to invite applications for test and committee felt that this issue was premature since the Christian Medical College has not yet applied for permission to the Committee for conducting its own test. As of now, the minority quota in CMC Ludhiana would also be filled up from the PMET conducted by University.
 

In view of above factors, it is therefore amply clear that minority/management quota seats in private institutions including minority institutions would be filled up on the basis of PMET conducted by the University.
 

5. Fee: The fee in private medical institution is to be fixed by the committee headed by Retired Mr.Justice G.R.Majithia (Retd.) after considering the facilities provided by them and income expenditure statement. This exercise will take some time and accordingly the Government has fixed the fee structure as follows on provisional basis. Once the fee is fixed by the committee the excess deficit would be adjusted by the respective colleges:
 

                          NRI Seats (Government and Private Colleges)
 

                          Other Seats:
 

(Satish Chandra), IAS,

Secretary, Medical Education & Research

17/6/2004