NEET PG on 'scheduled date'; NMC disposes off postponement representations by Telangana petitioners

NEW DELHI: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has disposed of the representations seeking postponement of the National Eligibility Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2023 by three months submitted by petitioners from Telangana and announced that exams will be held on the scheduled date which is March 5. The commission took the decision owing to the announcement of exam date on time, only 2 percent of applications after extension of internship completion deadline, preparations for exam, and early commencement of academic session 2023-24. NEET PG 2023 Postponement Supreme Court Updates

“The representation(s) of the applicant has been thoroughly examined in pursuance of the direction given by the High Court of Telangana and their representation could not be acceded to,” said NMC in an official public notice.

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NMC took the decision on the basis of the following:

• NEET PG 2023 exam date was already fixed six months in advance and the exam notice was uploaded on the website on September 16, 2022.
• Over 2 lakh students registered for the postgraduate entrance exam and had not objected to the date initially, when the cut-off date for the completion of the internship was March 31, 2023.
• After representations from various state governments and universities, the internship completion deadline was extended to August 11, 2023 and “surprisingly” only 5,000 additional applications were received which constitutes about 2 percent of the total candidates who are going to take exam. Postponing the exam will create problem for 98% of the students who have been studying/preparing for NEET PG exam and have represented to not to postpone the date of examination.
• All the preparations are over and the test is to be conducted at more than 800 centres for more than 2 lakh students.
• The academic session is planned to be started in July 2023 or as early as possible after counselling.

On February 17 and 20, the petitioners had submitted the representations seeking exam postponement on the grounds that they became eligible for the exam only after the extension of the internship completion deadline which was announced on February 7, 2023 and therefore, 18,000 doctors including them will not get sufficient time for preparation of the exam.

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Telangana High Court had dismissed the case and allowed the petitioners to submit a fresh representation to NMC within a week. It also requested NMC to reconsider its decision to hold the exam on March 5 and gave two weeks to reply. The court asked NMC to “pass appropriate orders in accordance with law as expeditiously as possible by keeping in mind that the entrance exam is scheduled in the first week of March, 2023.”