NEET 2020: SC declines plea for exam centres abroad

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court (SC), on August 24, 2020, declined the petition filed by the parents of students residing in the Middle East seeking NEET 2020 exam centres overseas amid COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 4,000 candidates who registered for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medicine from Qatar have been facing difficulty travelling internationally.

The order, passed by bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemand Gupt and Ravindra Bhat, has asked solicitor general, Tushar Mehta to consult with the concerned government ministries to ensure that the overseas NEET 2020 students return to India via Vande Bharat mission flights in time to appear for the medical entrance examination. Such students are to go through a 14-day COVID-19 quarantine in the interest of public health.

"We request the SG to consult the concerned ministries to ensure that the students who wish to visit India to write the NEET exam should be permitted to travel through Vande Bharat Mission flights," said SC as reported by Bar and Bench

Both NEET 2020 and JEE Mains

The petition filed in the SC also highlighted that up to 60% of the overseas medical aspirants want to appear for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main as well. And the decision to conduct both entrance examinations with a six-day gap will put such students in a fix.

To which, the court responded -"Petitioner says that a lot of students are also writing JEE exams scheduled on (1-6) September. The same students will find it difficult to return to India to write NEET scheduled on 13th September...We are afraid we cannot pass any orders in this regard since such students are not before us" reported Bar and Bench.

NTA declined request for NEET 2020 centres

Earlier, in an affidavit filed in the SC, NTA has clarified that it is not possible to provide exam centres abroad in Gulf countries for NEET 2020.

“The manner as to how examination[s] have to be conducted is a policy decision and, is, purely within the domain of the examining body viz. Medical Council of India (MCI) and whether centres for conducting such examination should be provided in foreign countries, is in the province of MCI to decide.” mentions the affidavit filed in SC

NEET 2021 in online mode: SC

In the decision on whether medical entrance examination to be conducted in online or offline mode, SC has asked the advocate of Medical Council of India (MCI), Gaurav Sharma, to consider conducting NEET in the online mode for the next session, as per the reports. With 16.94 lakh medical aspirants, NEET 2020 is all set to be held on September 13, 2020, for admission to 82,926 MBBS, 26,949 BDS, 52,720 AYUSH and 525 BVSc & AH offered in colleges of India.

Also read:

• NTA NEET 2020 Admit Card Live Updates; Download at ntaneet.nic.in
• FMGE 2020 Mock Test available for registered candidates at nbe.edu.in

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