The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea seeking postponement of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Postgraduate courses (NEET-PG) 2022. The plea was filed by a group of doctors.
The petitioners contended that the examination date, May 21, clashed with the counselling for NEET-PG 2021, which is ongoing.
The bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Surya Kant observed that postponing the examination would cause hardship to lakhs of candidates who had registered and prepared for the examination.
The bench was quoted by Bar and Bench as saying “It must be borne in mind that there is a large body of students and needs of patient care, which cannot be ignored. Over 2 lakh students have registered and now this postponement will create chaos and uncertainty.”
The Supreme Court also referred to the repercussions of delayed entry to medical colleges. The bench was quoted by Bar and Bench as saying “This plea cannot be entertained since it will seriously impact availability of medical care and have cascading impact on patient care and affect the doctors who have already registered. These are matters of policy domain unless proven that it is without application of mind or manifestly arbitrary. The interest of patient care will remain paramount in these conflicting interests...”
The petitioners had contended that as they had to attend counselling for NEET-PG 2021, they could not participate in NEET-PG 2022. The petitioners had sought deferment of NEET-PG 2022 by eight to 10 weeks.
