The medical council of India (MCI) has been given a go-ahead by the supreme court for introducing common entrance exams for undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses in the country.

The bench comprising justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik told the apex body on medical education to first implement the new admission rules in all medical colleges and come back if they face any issues. The bench refused to interfere in the matter before it is implemented.

MCI can now introduce single eligibility-cum-entrance examination in the academic year 2011-12 in all 271 government and private medical colleges in the country after the centre approves it. The MCI will also have to seek opinion of all state governments before notifying.

Some states including Tamil Nadu are against the common entrance test. They say that their state quota will be lost if they follow the new rules for admission. To this, the MCI had said that a national merit list will be drawn and students under all categories will be selected from this list.

There are approximately 31,000 undergraduate and 11,000 postgraduate seats for medical colleges in India.