The Supreme Court on Monday refused to pass a direction to the Centre to hold the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) Undergraduate (UG) 2020 at examination centres in Gulf countries. It asked the government to allow students to appear via the Vande Bharat Mission repatriation flights for the exam scheduled to be held on September 13.
According to reports, a Bench led by Justice L Nageswara Rao said that quarantine norms have to be followed as it is a matter of public safety. Existing norms will be mandatory for students flying in from Middle Eastern countries to sit the exam. However, the court gave petitioners the liberty to approach their respective state authorities for lifting of certain restrictions.
The Bench stated that the exam would be held offline and students flying in will have to observe mandatory quarantine of 14 days.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has been asked to communicate with the concerned Ministries by the top court so as to ensure that aspirants of the NEET, scheduled to be held on September 13, residing in the Middle East are granted the permit to travel to India via the Vande Bharat Mission flights.
Under the Vande Bharat Mission, the central government has allowed citizens of India, including overseas citizens of India, to come to the country through special flights.
The Medical Council of India (MCI) recently told the apex court that if the NEET UG 2020 examination is further postponed, it could lead to a ‘drastic deviation’ from the academic schedule, which in turn could affect the subsequent academic years of students.
Given the fact that the government of India has granted travel permits to and from other countries through the Vande Bharat Mission, the MCI, in an affidavit, has stated that the plea for overseas examination centres to conduct NEET(UG) must not receive any indulgence from the top court.
The plea heard by the top court was filed by parents of almost 4,000 NEET (UG) candidates, who are seeking postponement of the examination until the pandemic situation is normalised.
The parents of these candidates, who reside in Doha, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE, approached the apex court as their plea in the Kerala High Court was dismissed on June 30.
In their appeal against the Kerala High Court order, Abdul Azeez, general secretary of Kerala Muslim Culture Centre in Qatar, said that the National Testing Agency (NTA) had the capability as well as the willingness to open exam centres in Gulf countries as they had been doing so for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) (Main).
The NTA, however, had earlier told the court that the examination is conducted in paper book format, due to which having overseas examination centres for NEET (UG) 2020 is not possible.