New Delhi: The Supreme Court has refused a petition to postpone the postgraduate medical entrance exam, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET PG), claiming that thousands of students who have registered for the exam will be affected.
The court stated that postponing the exam would have an impact on the two lakh students who were studying for it, as well as a scarcity of doctors in hospitals, adding that patient care is vital.
A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud heard the case and said, “While considering the rival submissions, it must be noted at the outset that the academic schedule has already been delayed by over four months. The original schedule for NEET 2022-23 had to be revised due to pandemic exigencies. The petitioners and similarly placed doctors have participated in the counselling process for NEET-PG 2021. They were not barred from registering for NEET-PG 2022. The registration for NEET-PG 2022 closed on March 25. As many as two lakh and six thousand doctors have registered for the exam. What must be borne in mind by the court is that there is a large body of students and the need for patient care cannot be ignored. Postponing will create chaos and uncertainty.”
Doctors’ appeal highlighted a conflict with current NEET PG counselling. The petitioner’s senior lawyer, Rakesh Khanna, explained before the bench that the dates clashed.
The petitioners sought that the exam be postponed, claiming that it coincided with the existing NEET PG 2021 counselling process and that there was insufficient time to study.
Doctors who passed the NEET PG 2021 but received lesser scores would have to wait till the final rounds to be admitted. However, the NEET PG 2022 application process has also closed. The counselling procedure will complete on May 9 if it is not prolonged further, and the exam will begin on May 21. Candidates said that this leaves them with little time to prepare and can result in a year’s worth of losses.
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