Court directs for fresh B Sc-Nursing admission process

Aurangabad: The Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court comprising Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Sanjay Deshmukh on Thursday directed the State Government to hold a fresh admission process for the remaining 5,164 seats of the B Sc-Nursing course.

The court also asked the Government to give five days for the online registration for the fresh admission process.

This will provide an admission opportunity to the candidates on the basis of their HSC marks even if they got less than 50 percentile in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-undergraduate (NEET-UG).

Ritu Gaikwad and Pratiksha Patil filed a petition through adv Prahlad Bachate while Dr Balasaheb Pawar and Dr Dhananjay Kulkarni from the Private Nursing Schools and College Management Association and the Association of Management of Unaided Nursing College filed another petition through senior lawyer Vinayak Hon and adv Ashvin Hon.

As per the orders of the Indian Nursing Council (INC) dated July 15, 2021, one should have obtained a minimum 45 marks in Physics Chemistry and Biology (PCB) group of 12th standard to be eligible for the B Sc-Nursing admissions.

Also, those who have obtained 50 per cent marks in the PCB, English and Aptitude test conducted by the State Government or Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS). Despite this, the Nursing Council issued another order on April 8, 2022, stating that a candidate of the general category should obtain a minimum 50 percentile (40 per cent for reserved category) as eligibility for B Sc Nursing admission.

On the basis of this, the State Common Entrance Test Cell (SCETC) released NEET-UG Information Brochure on October 17, 2022, stating the above eligibility criteria for the nursing degree course. The petitioners also challenged April 8’s orders of the Council.

They requested the court to direct the Government not to implement the condition of percentile and allow admission on the basis of 12th standard marks.

Adv Deepak Manrukar who appeared for the Nursing Council during today’s hearing submitted its orders of June 16, 2022, and corrigendum on November 23, 2022, in the court.

He informed the court that the students who secured 45 per cent marks in HSC with PCB, English subjects or minimum 50 marks in the aptitude test conducted by the State Government or MUHS are eligible for admission to B Sc-Nursing.

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Fresh admission process aspirants

There are 6,400 seats for the B Sc Nursing course across the State.

A total of 1236 students confirmed their admission in the Centralised Admission Process (CAP) round-I. As per the court’s directives, the Cell will have to implement a new admission process

for the remaining 5,164 seats.