Monday, the Supreme Court said it couldn’t postpone the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test postgraduate (NEET-PG) exam, which was set to take place on March 5. It said it couldn’t stop the process because it wasn’t clear what would happen to candidates who weren’t there.
“Let the situation stay as it is. No one can’t try again because there’s nothing that can stop them… It is a process of change. Things can go wrong sometimes… Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia said, “We will just leave it alone.”
A group of doctors filed two petitions asking that the NEET-PG exam be put off. They did this because a new internship schedule gave them until July to finish their mandatory one-year internship. The bench threw out both petitions. Since counselling won’t happen until August, the doctors say that the NEET-PG exam should be put off for another six weeks to give people more time to study. Senior counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Vivek Tankha went to court for the petitioners.
The Centre, on the other hand, fought against the plea through Aishwarya Bhati, who is an additional solicitor general. Bhati said that all the administrative plans are in place and that the technology partner doesn’t have any other dates for the exam in the near future.
“Please remember that the pandemic is why we’re trying to move the calendar back two years. Almost 2,300 students tried to get in during the first window. Even though the deadline was pushed back, only 6,000 students applied for the internship. So, only a small number of people want the test to be moved, while most people are ready to take it,” she said.
Bhati also told the bench that the counselling is likely to start on July 15 instead of having to wait until August. “The rest would be allowed to take part temporarily, and each case would be looked at on its own,” she said.
After listening to the arguments, the bench decided to throw out the petitions and keep the current schedule.
During a previous hearing on Friday, the bench said that a request to postpone the exam could affect people who have been eligible all along and have been waiting anxiously for it to happen.
“Those who have been studying are in a lot of pain when an exam is pushed back.” “In our rush to balance your rights with those of others, we will step on the rights of many others,” it had said.
The petitioners went to the highest court and said that the National Board of Examinations had changed the eligibility requirements twice without consulting state medical bodies first, which was a clear sign of bad management. So, candidates didn’t have enough time to prepare, the petition said. It also said that there had never been a five-month gap between the exam and counseling dates in the history of NEET-PG.
Neet PgSupreme Court
