NEET PG 2022 Postponement: Supreme Court To Hear Plea For Postponing Exam Dates, Internship Deadline

NEET PG 2022: Supreme Court to hear plea for postponing March 12 NEET PG exam on Feb 4, 2022. Details for the same can be checked here.

NEET PG 2022: The Supreme Court will hear a plea on postponement of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET PG) exam 2022 date on Friday, February 4.  The hearing regarding the postponement and extension of the internship deadline was earlier scheduled for February 7 . As per the apex court website, the plea seeking deferment of NEET PG 2022 has been listed for hearing today. The plea was earlier filed on Tuesday, January 25.

It is to be noted that NEET PG 2022 is scheduled to be held on March 12. The plea seeking the postponement of the examination was filed by six MBBS candidates, who said that the dates need to be pushed further by the National Board of Examinations so that the candidates who have enrolled in the NEET PG 2021 counselling can be accommodated.

The petition also seeks the extension of the internship deadline for the same reason. As per the petitioners, many MBBS graduates would not be able to take up the examination due to non-completion of the mandatory internship period.

The petitioners along with many more candidates have claimed that while they were in the midst of COVID duty their internships were postponed and none of them were told that participating in front-line duties could result in them becoming ineligible to appear for their post-graduate exam.

NEET PG 2022: Plea details

1. As per the NEET PG regulations, 30 beds of a hospital have to be assigned to one unit of students pursuing the PG course and now two students of two academic sessions will have to be accommodated in the same facility.
2. The plea raised a challenge to the violation of NEET PG Regulations, 2000, while admitting candidates for academic sessions in one session as there is an “explicit cap on the number of PG admissions to be done per year per unit.”
3. The pleas also referred to a statement made by PM Modi on May 3, last year, to postpone NEET-PG 2021 by at least four months and the fact that the services of final year MBBS doctors will be utilised to handle mild Covid cases.
4. Hundreds of MBBS graduates, whose internship got halted due to their duty in tackling COVID-19 pandemic, would be rendered ineligible from appearing in the NEET-PG test due to lack of mandatory internship duty, the plea said in the top court.
5. The petitioners (with 1500 candidates) have mentioned that they were in Covid duties in the year 2021 and therefore their internship was postponed. They have submitted that they are victims of circumstances and that they were not informed at any time that serving in Covid duties would tantamount to a situation where they will not be eligible to appear for the NEET-PG,” the lawyer said.
6. Moreover, the petition also sought an extension of the deadline for completion of the internship from May 31.

This comes after the Supreme Court had on January 7 had given a green signal for starting the halted NEET-PG 2021 counselling process based on the existing 27 percent OBC and 10 percent EWS reservations in the All India Quota seats, saying there is an “urgent need” to begin the admission process.