SC dismisses plea to postpone NEET (PG): “Will impact patient care”

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the plea to postpone NEET (PG) exam. A bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud heard the case and came to the conclusion that postponing the exam will create chaos and impact patient care adversely.  

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the plea to postpone NEET (PG) exam. A bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud heard the case and came to the conclusion that postponing the exam will create chaos and impact patient care adversely.  

The bench also noted that postponing the exam will be a prejudice to the students who have registered. They also mentioned that time must be adhered to as the country is coming back on track after Covid-19 

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The petitioners argued that as the counseling of NEET (PG) 2021 is still going on, the exam should be postponed to make it fairer. They also argued that some doctors didn’t even apply for NEET (PG) 2022 as they hoped to get a seat in AIQ-Mop Up, which got canceled on 31-03-2022 while the closing date of NEET was 25-03-2022.  

NEET(PG)- 2021 was also postponed 

This is the second consecutive year that NEET (PG) is becoming a bone of contention between students and the government. Last year NEET (PG) 2021 was postponed to September 2021, from its original date of April 2021. Its counseling was delayed due to a case in Supreme Court regarding EWS-OBC reservation in the all-India quota. 

In January 2022, the Supreme Court gave the signal to the counseling process based on the existing criteria of reservations. The counseling was scheduled to wrap on 9th May 2022. The petitioners are pointing out this small time frame as unfair.  

Opposition by other students

A large section of students who also protested feels that this postponement will push the academic year further. The post-graduate students apart from their classes also work in hospitals associated with their colleges as part of their training. 

The repeated postponements result in gaps in the academic year, which further leads to either lack of doctors or an overburden of junior residents.