President Pranab Mukherjee signs the NEET ordinance

On 24 May, President Pranab Mukherjee signed the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) ordinance on uniform medical entrance examinations.

President Mukherjee had earlier sought legal advice on the ordinance to keep state boards out of the ambit of the uniform medical entrance examination for this year.

The NEET Ordinance is aimed at overturning a Supreme Court order that had taken into consideration the allegations of corruption during various medical entrance tests conducted by states and private colleges. The Supreme Court had directed that a common entrance test, NEET, or the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test will be held across India.

This comes days after the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kehriwal urged the President to not to sign the ordinance.

He had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him not to bring any order against the Supreme Court ruling on NEET, saying the students had welcomed the decision as it discouraged well-endowed parents from making 'donations' to get their children admitted into reputed private medical colleges.

The centre, however, cleared the ordinance to postpone the exams so that the students had enough time to prepare for the tests.

--With ANI Inputs