The Gauhati High Court recently dismissed a plea for further relaxation of requisite marks for admission to medical colleges for the northeast’s tribal students.

“Hearing the writ petition filed by tribal students and their guardians, the high court’s Agartala bench Justice Utpalendu Bikash Saha said that the MCI (Medical Council of India) had issued guidelines, setting the minimum score of 40 percent in science subjects in entrance examination for admission to medical colleges,” Assistant Solicitor General Pijush Kanti Biswas said.

According to the current MCI guidelines, a general category MBBS aspirants have to secure at least 50 percent marks in both Class 12 and the medical entrance examination. The cut-off marks for tribal and Scheduled Castes (SC) students is 40 percent.

The Tripura government and all opposition political parties have been requesting the central government and the MCI to further relax medical admissions eligibility criteria for northeast’s tribal students as this relaxation will facilitate backward community students to obtain professional education.

In all, 29 MBBS seats are lying vacant in the government-run medical college in Agartala and outside the state (Tripura quota) for tribal and SC students because no student secured the minimum qualifying marks in the entrance examination.