 bill  no 167 of  2016 the indian medical council (amendment) bill,  2016 abillfurther to amend the indian medical council act, 1956be it enacted by parliament in the sixty-seventh year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the indian medical council (amendment) act, 2016short title and commencement (2) it shall be deemed to have come into force on 24th may, 20165102 of 19562  after  section 10c of the indian medical council act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as the principal act), the following section shall be inserted, namely:—insertion of new section 10d10"10d there shall be conducted a uniform entrance examination to all medical educational institutions at the undergraduate level and post-graduate level through such designated authority in hindi, english and such other languages and in such manner as may be prescribed and the designated authority shall ensure the conduct of uniform entrance examination in the aforesaid manner:uniform entrance examination for undergraduate and postgraduate levelprovided that notwithstanding any judgment or order of any court, the provisions of this section shall not apply, in relation to the uniform entrance examination at the undergraduate level for the academic year 2016-17 conducted in accordance with any regulations made under this act, in respect of the state government seats (whether in government medical college or in a private medical college) where such state has not opted for such examination"amendment of section 333 in section 33 of the principal act, after clause (ma), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—"(mb) the designated authority, other languages and the manner of conducting of uniform entrance examination to all medical educational institutions at the undergraduate level and post-graduate level;"54  (1) the indian medical council (amendment) ordinance, 2016 is hereby repealedrepeal and savingsord 4 of 2016(2) notwithstanding such repeal, anything done or any action taken under the indian medical council act,1956 as amended by the said ordinance, shall be deemed to have been done or taken under the corresponding provisions of the said act, as amended by this act102 of 1956 statement of objects and reasonsthe indian medical council act, 1956 was enacted for the purpose of reconstituting the medical council of india (the council) and to provide for the maintenance of the indian medical register and for matters connected therewith2 the act confers upon the council the responsibility of maintenance of the highest standards of medical education throughout the country in pursuance of the responsibility, the council makes its recommendations to the central government for matters related to the courses of study, examination to be undertaken for such qualifications and inspection of examinations, etc3 in order to conduct a uniform entrance examination to all medical educational institutions and undergraduate and post-graduate level for all candidates, the council notified the conduct of a single entrance examination, namely the national eligibility-cum-entrance test (neet) by amending the graduate medical regulations, 1997 and post-graduate medical education regulations, 2000 respectively4 several court cases were filed by a number of institutions and state governments of tamil nadu and andhra pradesh against neet in various courts across the country on the request of the council, the said cases were transferred to the hon'ble supreme court however, the hon'ble supreme court, vide its order dated 18th july, 2013 had quashed the said regulations5 since, the government was of the firm opinion that it would be in the larger interest of the society and the students aspiring to study medicine to have neet, certain review petitions were filed by the central government and the council before the hon'ble supreme court the hon'ble court vide its order dated 11th april, 2016 allowed these review petitions and recalled the judgment dated 18th july, 2013 and directed that matters to be heard afresh further, the hon'ble supreme court vide its orders dated 28th april, 2016 and 9th may, 2016in wp no 261/2016 filed by sankalp charitable trust and others vs union of india directed that neet [under graduate] shall come into effect immediately it had further directed that all india pre medical test, 2016 (aipmt) to be held on 1st may, 2016 shall be phase-i of neet and phase-ii of neet shall be held on 24th july, 2016 and the combined result of both the tests shall be declared on 17th august, 20166 in view of the judgment of the hon'ble supreme court, neet became mandatory for all under-graduate and post-graduate admissions with immediate effect however, some state governments indicated that it would be in the larger interest of the students' community across the country to hold neet for undergraduate admission from the year 2017-18 onwards instead of 2016-17, in the light of the following difficulties being faced by those state governments':(i) state level examinations for admissions have already been conducted andstudents will have to appear for a second examination;(ii) state examinations are also conducted in regional languages it is notappropriate to make all students to take the examination in hindi and english, particularly when only two months are left for neet phase-ii examination; and(iii) the syllabi for the state level examinations are different from the aipmt, which is going to be the basis for neet phase-ii examination it was accordingly decided to make certain amendments to the indian medical council act, 1956 since the parliament was not in session and immediate action was required to be taken in the light of representations of the state governments and exigencies of the neet scheduled for 24th july, 2016, the indian medical council (amendment) ordinance, 2016 was promulgated by the president on the 24th may, 20168 the indian medical council (amendment) bill, 2016 which seeks to replace the indian medical council (amendment) ordinance, 2016, provides for the following, namely:—(a) to insert a new section 10d in the act for conducting of uniform entrance examination to all medical educational institutions at the undergraduate level and post-graduate level through such designated authority in hindi, english and such other languages in such manner as may be prescribed;(b) to insert a proviso in the said section so as to provide that notwithstanding any judgment or order of any court, the provisions of this section shall not apply, in relation to the uniform entrance examination at the undergraduate level for the academic year 2016-17 conducted in accordance with any regulations made under this act, in respect of the state government seats (whether in government medical college or in a private medical college) where such state has not opted for such examination; and(c) to amend section 33 of the act so as to enable the council to make regulations for all matters connected with the conduct of uniform entrance examination 9 the bill seeks to replace the aforesaid ordinancenew delhi;jagat prakash naddathe 15th july, 2016————abillfurther to amend the indian medical council act, 1956————(shri jagat prakash nadda, minister of health and family welfare)gmgipmrnd—1543ls(s3)—15072016