एजुकेशन

BREAKING] Supreme Court refuses to postpone NEET PG 2023

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition by seventeen doctors seeking the postponement of National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) post graduate examination scheduled on March 5, 2023 [Dr Ganesh Pawar v Union of India].

The petitioners had approached the top court contending that the eligibility criteria had been modified by the National Board of Examinations (NBE) twice, clearly reflecting oversight and mismanagement on its part of not consulting state medical bodies in advance.

As a result of that, candidates did not get adequate time to prepare, it was submitted.

"Candidates should not be made to suffer because of fault on part of NBE. It is most humbly submitted that NBE issued the Impugned notice without checking with all the State Medical Councils regarding one of the most important aspect of eligibility," argued the petitioners.

A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta said that nothing prevented anyone appearing from trying again.

"Nothing in this world prevents anyone from trying again ... It [NEET norms] is an evolutionary process. Sometimes it can go wrong," said the bench.

The candidates were subjected to last-minute chaos and confusion only because of the fault on part of NBE, said the petitioners.

The Court was further informed that never in the history of NEET PG was there a 5-month difference between exam date and counselling date.

It was further contended that numerous Right to Information applications were filed by candidates in November seeking the eligibility criteria and examination date. However, the only RTI response received suggested that the information bulletin would be released 2-3 months in advance.

During today's hearing, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati submitted that administrative arrangements were all in place, and no other date was available with the technology partner.

"My Lords please consider that we are trying to restore the calendar of two years back," she said, referring to the relaxations made in earlier years in view of the COVID pandemic.

The Court, however, declined to interfere.

Senior Advocates Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Vivek Tankha appeared for the petitioners.

[Read our live-coverage of the hearing below]