The plea filed by six MBBS graduates seeks a direction to the National Board of Examination to postpone the scheduled test until requirements, such as completion of mandatory internship period, set forth in the PG Regulations, are met by many aspirants
The Supreme Court of India. PTI
The Supreme Court will likely hear a petition seeking deferment of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for postgraduate admissions, which is scheduled to be conducted on 12 March, on Fridaym according to several media reports.
The matter was earlier listed for 7 February.
The plea filed by six MBBS graduates, through Dubey Law Chambers, seeks a direction to the National Board of Examination to postpone the scheduled test until various requirements, such as completion of mandatory internship period, set forth in the PG Regulations, are met by many aspirants.
As per the petitioners, many MBBS graduates would not be able to take up the examination due to the non-completion of the mandatory internship period. Meanwhile, many aspirants also took to the microblogging site Twitter to raise their concerns and demand the postponement.
They have claimed that scores of MBBS graduates, who could not do their internship due to their duty in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, would be rendered ineligible from appearing in the NEET-PG due to lack of mandatory internship duty. The plea referred to the statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 3 May, last year to postpone NEET-PG 2021 by at least four months and the fact that the services of final year MBBS doctors will be utilised to handle mild COVID-19 cases.
The plea challenges the condition provided in the information bulletin which provides for a deadline of 31 May, 2022 for completion of internship.
“The petitioners (with 1500 candidates) have mentioned that they were in Covid duties in the year 2021 and therefore their internship was postponed. They have submitted that they are victims of circumstances and that they were not informed at any time that serving in Covid duties would tantamount to a situation where they will not be eligible to appear for the NEET-PG,” the lawyer said.
The plea has sought an extension of the deadline of completion of internship from 31 May. Recently, the apex court, on 7 January, had paved the way for starting the stalled NEET-PG 2021 counselling process based on the existing 27 per cent OBC and 10 per cent EWS reservations in the All India Quota seats, saying there is an “urgent need” to begin the admission process.
With inputs from PTI
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