NEET MDS 2022: Supreme Court dismisses plea to extend internship deadline beyond July 31

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea seeking fresh notification to extend the deadline of one year mandatory internship for National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) MDS 2022 beyond July 31, as per Live Law. The plea also sought postponement of NEET MDS 2022 exam and relaxation in eligibility criteria.

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A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant were hearing the matter. Justice DY Chandrachud observed that the exam and cut off date have been already revised and said, “Now they've extended the cut off date, you want to further extend the date? Now you're saying extend it further to October that means the medical course will not begin. Because some people will be on this side and some people will be on the other side.”

“Your petition is hit by our previous order that it's completely within the policy domain. Ultimately the courses will have to begin. We’ll dismiss it,” he said and dismissed the petition.

In February, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) postponed the NEET MDS 2022 exam and extended the internship deadline from March 31 to July 31. As per an order by the health ministry, the NEET MDS 2022 exam which was earlier scheduled to be held on March 6 has been postponed by four to six weeks and the date of completion of the compulsory rotating internship for getting admission to the MDS course has been postponed by two months. Hence, all students can complete their internships by July 31.

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After the Center postponed NEET PG 2022, the NEET MDS 2022 aspirants wrote a letter to the Dental Council of India demanding postponement of the exam. “Due to the Covid-19 situation, the current intern batch (2016) started internship very late, due to the delaying of their final year BDS university exams in most of the estates. Now they are ineligible to appear in NEET MDS as per the criteria mentioned by the NBE,” it added. The letter further said that the 2500 interns will not be able to appear for the exam.