Students has complain about the “non-transparent” counselling by Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board (BCECEB).
BCECEB has forced at least 125 candidates with much better ranks to remain satisfied with the colleges they were allotted in the first two rounds. They have been debarred or excluded from taking part in mop-up round of counselling where the possibility of college upgrade is quite high.
All 183 seats were vacant after two rounds and were filled during the mop up round.
This meant lower-ranked students are now ahead of those who have already sought admission after the second round and were not allowed to take part in the mop-up round.
The Same Case Happens With These Two Student:
All India Rank, 14371 (AIR), NEET-UG 2019 and 981 Bihar rank holder, got the state’s best college which is Patna Medical College, in the ‘mop-up’ round of counselling.
She was not allotted any college in the first and second rounds. The seat allotment is made as per Bihar rank.
Her ranking was below the cut-off for the lowest-ranked Bettiah Medical College in the second round, which was 954 in the open category. In the mop-up round though, the cut-off state rank for an MBBS seat was 1224.
A boy, with 6871 AIR and 405 (Unreserved) Bihar rank, had to settle for the third best college in the state which is Nalanda Medical College.
Medical Seats Distribution in Bihar:
In total Bihar has 972 medical seats. At the start of the mop-up round which follows two rounds of counselling, a total of 183 seats or almost 20% were vacant. Of this, 131 were for the unreserved candidates. This suggests that at least 100 candidates had to be content with admission in dental colleges for Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) courses, who could have got MBBS seats were they allowed to take part in the mop-up round of counselling.
Because of a rule that bars those already admitted to any college after the second round of counselling from attending the mop-up round students in Bihar find themselves in a miserable situation. Though Patna Medical College and the second-best Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences had six and nine seats, respectively after the second round, the boy with 405 Bihar rank could not apply for these.
States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal allow all students, even those who have been allotted seats after the second round of counselling to attend the mop-up round. Bihar, however, takes recourse to a 2017 Supreme Court and a 2018 state government order to bar admitted students from the mop-up round.
The 2017 Supreme Court order, in the Dar-Us-Salam Educational Trust and others versus Medical Council of India and Others case, stated:
“After the second round of counselling for All India Quota seats, the students who take admission in All India Quota seats, would not be allowed/ permitted to vacate the seats. This would ensure that very few seats are reverted to the state quota and also All India Quota seats are filled by all India merit list only”.
The order concludes saying:
“Needless to say this arrangement will not apply to states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir. As far as other states are concerned, this arrangement shall apply to all the colleges.”
The SC order talks only about the All India Quota seats and not for the State Quota seats but Bihar has made this the basis for not allowing those already admitted to take part in the mop up round on the other hand some states have interpreted the same order differently and allowed all candidates to attend the mop-up round of counselling opening possibilities of college upgrade.