Supreme Court refuses to postpone NEET PG 2024, says ‘2 lakh students, 4 lakh parents will suffer’

NEW DELHI: Uncertainty loomed large over the NEET PG aspirants as the Supreme Court today heard the plea seeking postponement of exam citing far-off test centre allocation. The top court refused to postpone the NEET PG exam 2024 and said that 2 lakh students and 4 lakh parents will suffer”.

Advocate Sanjay Hedge, appearing for petitioners, told the apex court that the number of exam centres were reduced from 1,200 to 500. Claiming that he received 50,000 phone calls, he argued that “2 exams, 2 papers will make normalizing ‘inherently problematic’.

The bench said: “Now to reschedule a PG exam is not possible, they are all children for all of us. As matter of principle we will not reschedule. 2 lakh students and 4 lakh parents will suffer. At behest of 5 petitioner will keep careers of 2 lakh students in jeopardy.”

“Simple answer is we all live in an extremely diverse nation - geographically, culturally. Therefore, we have these large exams… your argument is postulated on ideal solutions, we are looking at a complex society,” the bench said.

NEET PG exam date 2024 was revised thrice this year and in view of the NEET UG paper leak controversy and to avoid malpractice, the board deferred the exam a day before the scheduled date on June 23.

Aspirants were put in a similar situation again with the allotment of exam centres 1,000 kilometers away from their city. Ministers, MPs, student groups had urged the ministry of health and welfare and the NBEMS to review the allocation, however, some who got their city allotment revised continued to express disappointment as the fresh allocations were ‘not-so-favorable cities’.

There were several NEET PG paper leak claims made on social media. Amid the controversies, an NBEMS ‘confidential’ letter containing details on the number of candidates and exam shifts went viral on social media platforms, questioning the security.

The NBEMS issued the exam city allotment on July 31 and the admit cards notifying the exam centre details were issued on August 8.

A day before the NEET PG hall ticket was issued, on August 7, the NBE and the health ministry warned students of fraudsters promising to provide the NEET PG question paper in return for a large sum of money. It also rubbished the claims of NEET PG paper leak and assured candidates that the question papers were yet to be prepared by the board.