Bengaluru: Admission to undergraduate programmes in Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy will be conducted exclusively through the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) from the academic year 2026–27, the Karnataka State Allied and Healthcare Council has said.

In a press note issued on Friday, Council Chairman Prof. U. T. Iftikhar Ali Fareed said the decision follows a communication from the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) to the National Testing Agency and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

According to the notification, the NCAHP has finalised the category-wise degree nomenclature and admission criteria for Allied and Healthcare undergraduate programmes and communicated the same to the University Grants Commission for adoption from the 2026–27 academic year.

As per the guidelines, admissions to the Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPT), classified under Category 3, and the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (BOT), classified under Category 6, will be carried out only through NEET, in accordance with the provisions of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021.

The Council has asked Vice-Chancellors of public universities, private state universities and deemed-to-be universities to take note of the revised admission procedure and ensure that the information is widely circulated among affiliated colleges, faculty members and students seeking admission to these courses.

Universities have also been directed to take necessary steps to ensure strict compliance with the NCAHP admission process for the 2026–27 academic year and for subsequent years.

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Kolkata (PTI): The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday disposed of the TMC's petition praying for protection of its data, saying the ED has informed that it has not seized anything from I-PAC director Pratik Jain's office and home during its raids last week.

TMC had moved the court seeking an order for preservation of personal and political data that may have been seized by the ED during its raids on these two premises on January 8.

Representing the ED, additional solicitor general SV Raju stated before the court that the agency had not seized anything from these two sites.

The ASG submitted that whatever the agency had seized was taken away by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Disposing of TMC's petition, Justice Suvra Ghosh observed that in view of the submissions made by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Union of India, nothing further remained to be adjudicated in the matter.

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The court also adjourned a separate petition filed by the ED seeking a CBI probe into the events of January 8, when Banerjee visited the political consultancy firm’s office in Salt Lake and its director’s residence on Loudon Street in south Kolkata during the raids.

The high court adjourned the central agency's plea on the ground that the ED has filed two special leave petitions before the Supreme Court with prayers "which are almost identical with the present application before it."

He argued that when a similar issue is pending before the apex court, a high court should refrain from hearing a matter on the same subject.

TMC’s counsel Menaka Guruswamy submitted that political parties have a right to privacy, as upheld by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.

Banerjee had visited the agency's operation venues on January 8 and alleged that investigators were attempting to seize sensitive data of the TMC ahead of the upcoming assembly polls.

Following the developments, both the TMC and the ED had approached the high court.

While the TMC in its writ petition sought judicial intervention to restrain the ED from "prejudice, misuse and dissemination" of seized data during the search operations, the agency moved the court alleging interference in its investigation, and prayed for transferring the probe to the CBI.

The ED has named Banerjee and some state officials as respondents in its petition, while the TMC petition was filed against the Union of India.

Justice Ghosh heard the matters with restricted courtroom entry, allowing only lawyers connected with the cases.

The direction to hold the hearings with regulated entry was given by Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul on Tuesday in view of unmanageable chaos inside the courtroom of Justice Ghosh on January 9 when these matters were to be taken up for hearing.

Justice Ghosh had adjourned the hearing till January 14, and left her chair after repeated requests to those not connected with the petitions to leave the courtroom fell on deaf ears.