'Not entertaining petition': Supreme Court dismisses NEET PG 2023 postponement plea

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court dismisses plea to postpone the National Eligibility Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2023 exam scheduled on March 5. The top court refused to entertain the petitions seeking postponement. NEET PG 2023 Exam Live Updates

When the senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan appearing for the petitioner said, “This problem started with NEET. Previously States had their own process.” Justice S Ravindra Bhat replied, “All this is a part of the evolutionary process.” "Today what is happening is that if you pull the clothe this side something is happening on the other side. How do we balance," Justice Bhat observed.

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Additional Solicitor General, Aishwarya Bhati told the court, "We want to start counselling from 15.07.2022 without waiting for the August date. The rest would be allowed to participate provisionally and would be considered on a case to case basis." To this, the senior counsel said, " They said they will start counselling from 15.07.2023. But it does not have sense for those who finish later." The court said that such students will be a part of the counselling provisionally and stated, "We will do the best we can in the circumstances...Let’s leave it at that."

Moreover, when the senior counsel said that a lot of candidates will still not have the eligibility to come for their choice of subjects, Justice Bhat replied, "There is nothing in the world to say that they cannot reapply."

NEET PG 2023 postponement plea

On February 24, the National Medical Commission (NMC) disposed of the representations submitted by the petitioners who approached the Telangana High Court seeking postponement of the exam owing to less time for preparation and announced that the exam will be held on the scheduled date which is March 5. The Telangana High Court had dismissed a plea to postpone the postgraduate medical entrance exam and had asked the commission to consider the representations quickly.

Aspirants had also filed a separate petition in the apex court. Students have been demanding the postponement due to the huge gap between the exam date and counselling.

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Doctors’ bodies also came to support students and urged the concerned authorities to consider deferment of the exam. The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) had said that if the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE) 2023 can be postponed, then NEET PG should too. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had also asked the union health minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, to postpone NEET PG 2023 by two to three months.

A group of aspirants posted a petition on the website Change.org seeking the postponement of NEET PG exam. Over 16,000 candidates signed the online petition.

On the contrary, Mandaviya had told the Lok Sabha on February 10 that NEET PG 2023 will not be postponed. The decision was taken to avoid further delay in the exam and counselling process caused due to COVID-19.