The Supreme Court on Friday, May 13, refused to postpone the NEET-PG 2022 examination on a plea of doctors, saying the delay would cause unavailability of doctors and seriously affect patient care. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant said the postponement of the examination would create chaos and uncertainty and would affect the larger section of students, who have registered for the examination.
There are two categories of students -- one which is seeking postponement — and the larger category of over two lakh six thousand candidates who would be affected by the postponement after having prepared for the examination, the bench said. It noted that the government is trying to bring back the schedule of examination on time as it was affected due to the pandemic. As the country gets back on the rails, which was derailed due to the pandemic, the time schedule laid down by this court must be adhered to, it said.
On May 10, the top court had agreed to hear the plea of doctors seeking postponement of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2022 which is scheduled to be held on May 21 on grounds that it will clash with the ongoing counselling for NEET-PG 2021.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has also written to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya requesting postponement of the NEET-PG examination. In its letter, the IMA said the NEET-PG 2021 was held five months after the scheduled date in September 2021. Then the counselling scheduled to begin on October 25, 2021, was also initiated after a delay (in January, 2022) due to pending decision on seat reservations and was further delayed owing Supreme Court ruling of March 31, 2022, which ordered the cancellation and conduction of special round of counselling for the mop-up round.
As a result of the delayed counselling schedule, NEET PG 2022 was deferred from April 2022 to May 2022, so that the candidates could appear for the final stray vacancy round of NEET PG 2021 and can still have plenty of time for preparation and reappearance for the next NEET PG 2022 exam, if they failed to secure a seat this year, the IMA said.