New Delhi: In a major decision that was conveyed to the Supreme Court on Friday, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has said that their decision to introduce one common entrance test for all medical courses in India has been accepted by the Union Ministry and would be introduced from the next year, that is, 2011.

The new common medical entrance test would be applicable for a total number of 30,000 MBBS seats and over 11,000 MD seats in 138 government run medical colleges as well as 133 private medical institutes.

The decision has come as a relief to thousands of medical school aspirants in India. Earlier, students wishing to make a career in medicine had to appear for several medical entrance examinations for various colleges. This proved to create problems for them as the dates for the examinations and counseling sessions would clash with each other.

The number of medical entrance examinations that students had to appear for had been the cause of major confusion among students. This had led to several students thronging to the Supreme Court every year to complain against the system which had caused them to miss out on seats even if they had made a little mistake.

Simran Jain had filed a petition with the Supreme Court, asking the MCI and central government to introduce a new single and common entrance examination for all medical colleges in India. The MCI counsel and senior advocate Amarendra Saran had taken a decision to introduce the common entrance test during a hearing before a Bench.

P.P. Malhotra, additional solicitor general, had said that the government had decided to accept the MCI proposal for the common entrance test for medical courses and also to amend the regulation for admission into medical institutes.