NEET PG 2022: Supreme Court to hear plea on application, internship deadline on February 8

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear the plea regarding the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test postgraduate (NEET PG 2022) application deadline of NEET PG and completion of the internship. The Centre today postponed the NEET PG 2022, which was scheduled to be held on March 12.

The postponement of NEET PG 2022 came as a relief for the medical aspirants, however, as per the notification released by the National Board of Examination (NBE), the deadline for completion of the internship is May 31, 2022.

A petition filed on January 25 by six MBBS graduates claimed that many MBBS graduates would not be able to take up the examination due to non-completion of the mandatory internship period.

Advocate Charu Mathur, for the petitioners, told Careers360, "Though the NEET PG exam gets deferred by six to eight weeks, key issue regarding internship remains to be resolved. Following PM Narendra Modi's assurance, doctors did 100 days of Covid-19 duty and selflessly submitted to call of nation but this disrupted their internship. Internship is for one year and as per info bulletin it is to be completed by May 31. This is practically not possible as they were in COVID duty. However, I'm sure that this issue will also get resolved."

The health and family minister has taken the decision to postpone NEET PG 2022 by 6-8 weeks or suitably, a letter sent by the ministry to NBE read.

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NEET PG 2022 Postponed: Internship deadline

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the six students who have filed the petition, also said that postponement of the exam by 6-8 weeks only impacted the larger relief sought by the petitioners but still some issues remain.

He said the issue was that deadline of May 31, 2022, has been fixed for completion of one year internship which was difficult to meet as the doctors after an announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi have got engaged in COVID duty.

He pointed out to the bench that the last date for filling the application for the students has been fixed February 4. The bench said, “We can always extend the deadline but we would like to hear the other side also”.

It asked Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Centre in some other matter, to take instructions with regard to relief sought by the MBBS students. Jain said he was to appear in some other matter and if no one is there for the Centre, he will seek instructions and inform the court on Monday or Tuesday.

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Several hundred MBBS graduates, whose internship got halted due to their duty in tackling COVID-19 pandemic, would be rendered ineligible from appearing in the NEET-PG test due to lack of mandatory internship duty that too without their fault, the plea said while seeking deferment of the test.

It referred to the statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 3 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 cases.

The plea challenges the condition provided in the information bulletin which provides for a deadline of May 31, 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," advocate Tanvi Dubey said.

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The plea has sought an extension of the deadline of completion of internship from May 31. The apex court, on January 7, 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.