The future of thousands of medical students may hang in the balance, as the Medical Council of India (MCI) has started taking action against private medical colleges. These colleges are believed to have illegally admitted students in Under Graduate Courses by ignoring the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). Students must pass this test before they can gain admission to any medical college. Keeping a tab on the admission process to ensure that all admissions were being done through clearing NEET, the MCI has recently issued a discharge notice of at least 36 students admitted in Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Medical Sciences, Manamai-Nellur, Tamil Nadu. The students did not appear for the NEET exam but still were given admission in the college. “Our monitoring committee is keeping a strict vigil on admissions in all the medical colleges. We haven’t yet found out the exact numbers of students who were admitted without appearing in NEET. But we are aware that there are several medical colleges who have provided back door admissions by ignoring the NEET exam. Such admissions will not be considered,” said Dr Jayshree Mehta, President, MCI. Similarly, the Dental Council of India (DCI) is also scrutinizing admissions in dental colleges. “It has come to our notice that in states such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh some dental colleges have taken students without NEET. We are under a process of scrutinizing the list of admissions. We will take appropriate action against the erring colleges once we find out the exact number of students admitted illegally,” said Dr A K Chandna, member, DCI. Through NEET, the government is aiming to bring in more transparency in the admission process and curb the practice of capitation fee charged by private colleges. Also, common counselling for admission to all Undergraduate and Postgraduate Courses (Diploma/MD/ MS/DM/M.Ch.) in all medical educational institutions on the basis of merit list of the NEET has been introduced by the Union Health Ministry to curb malpractices