NEET-PG 2023 : Supreme Court Seeks NBE's Response On Pleas To Postpone NEET-PG Exam By 3 Months
The Supreme Court, on Friday, sought the response of the National Board of Examinations to the petitions filed by doctors who are aspirants of NEET-PG 2023-24 seeking to postpone the NEET-PG 2023 exam scheduled on March 3 by three months.A Bench comprising Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice Dipankar Datta will consider the matter next on Monday, February 27.Arguments of the...
The Supreme Court, on Friday, sought the response of the National Board of Examinations to the petitions filed by doctors who are aspirants of NEET-PG 2023-24 seeking to postpone the NEET-PG 2023 exam scheduled on March 3 by three months.
A Bench comprising Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice Dipankar Datta will consider the matter next on Monday, February 27.
Arguments of the petitioners
Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, submitted that the announcement of NBE came on January 5, 2023. He submitted that although the petitions have been filed by 13 petitioners, the issue affects over 45,000 students across the country. The NBE subsequently extended the cut-off date for internship to 11.08.2023 on 07.02.2023.
"When you go for counselling you have to show the completion of internship. So, counselling can only happen after 11.08.2023", the senior counsel submitted.
Replying to a query by a bench, the senior counsel said that over 2 lakh candidates have registered for the exam. So, the persons who are likely to be affected by the decision, 45,000 as claimed by the petitioners, are in a minority, the bench pointed out.
The lawyer pointed out that many candidates have not had enough exposure to knowledge gained through internship and this puts them at a disadvantageous position. These students are now undergoing over 12 hours of internship work daily and hence there is no adequate time for preparation.
The bench however expressed concerns about the agony which will be caused to students who have been preparing.
"Those who have been preparing for months together, if they are told that they should wait for months..... We are also aware when we postpone..the agony of candidates who have prepared...the whole dynamics changes", Justice Bhat said.
"For those who are waiting, it is really a mental torture", the judge said.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, also appearing for the petitioners, submitted that the issue arises as different states have different internship schedule. If the counselling is to take place after August, why can't the exam be deferred by a few weeks, the senior counsel asked.
NBE's response
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing on behalf of the NBE, informed the bench that over 2.09 lakh candidates have registered. There is a technology partner whose services have been roped in to conduct the exams and if the exams are postponed, possible dates may not be available in the near future as the technology partner may not be available.
Clarifying that it is not indicating that it will postpone the exams, the bench said that it wanted responses to the concerns raised by the petitioners. The bench also told the petitioners that they became eligible only because of the internship deadline extension given by the NBE. "In normal course you had to wait for months. Now you have got a chance...and you want to defer the exam", Justice Bhat commented.
Details of the petitions
The petitioners, in the petitions filed through Advocate Charu Mathur and Dubey Law Associates, challenge the act of National Board of Examination (NBE) informing the candidates about the revised eligibility criteria as late as on 07.02.2023. The petitioners allege that the act is unjust, arbitrary and leaves no time to prepare for the examination, which is scheduled for 05.03.2023.
The petitioners allege that the National Board of Examination issued the notice without checking with all the State Medical Councils regarding one of the most important aspect of eligibility. It is argued that the eligibility criteria been modified twice by NBE, clearly reflects the oversight and mismanagement on its part of not consulting the state medical bodies in advance, thereby giving no time to the candidates to prepare.
"If NBE had directly released the cut-off date when the information bulletin was released in January 2023, there would have been no issues. How can a candidate who got permission to apply barely 25 days prior to the examination be equal to the candidates who had permission to apply 60 days prior to the examination", the petitioners argued.
The petition argues that there is a 5 month gap between the date of examination and the date the counselling which cannot commence before 11.08.2023 (the final internship cut-off date) and the same would be detrimental for the post resident doctors. The eligibility criteria as per Clause 4.1 of the Information Bulletin 2023-24 required the candidates to have completed one year of internship or are likely to complete the internship on or before 31st March, 2023. The clause was alleged to be restrictive. The candidates who would not complete one-year internship by 31st March, 2023 were not aware of their ineligibility before the Information Bulletin was released on 07.01.2023. The petition claims that Clause 4.1 rendered 75% candidates ineligible. The ineligible candidates and concerned organisations sent presentations to NBE requesting it to postpone the NEET-PG examination and to also extend the internship eligibility date. On 13.01.2023, the NBE extended the internship cut-off date to 30.06.2023. Again, representations were made seeking a further extension as more than 13,000 candidates were still ineligible. As no response was received from NBE, some of the candidates approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The High Court issued notice in the matter and permitted the petitioners to apply for NEET-PG 2023 examination. Another similar petition was also allowed by the High Court. In the interim, the NBE was asked to accept the applications without any reference to Clause 4.
On 07.02.2023, NBE provided an extension of the internship cut-off date to 11.08.2023. Within 2 days, the eligible candidates were asked to apply for NEET-PG 2023 examination. However, these candidates were only provided centres from those cities, which were available at the time of closure of the previous registration window on 27.01.2023. Therefore, it is quite obvious that several candidates would not get the centre of their choice and have to travel extensively to take the examination. The petition points out that if the candidates have to travel outside the city they would necessarily have to take leave from the ongoing internship.
The petition categorically submits that the petitioners are ready and willing to appear in the NEET-PG 2023-24 examination, however considering the action of NBE is unjust and arbitrary, it has been impugned. The grounds on which the challenge has been asserted are that the candidates are made to suffer due to mismanagement on the part of NBE; the examination date was released by NBE without consulting the State Medical bodies; lack of time to prepare in addition to the hectic internship schedules; timely notice regarding eligibility was not provided; the schedule of the examination as it stands today will not regularize the examination process as the 2023-24 session cannot commend before 11.08.2023.
The petitioners therefore seek to defer NEET-PG exam by three months in view of the fact that the counselling cannot happen before August 11, 2023.
Two sets of petitions have been filed seeking postponement of NEET-PG 2023-24, one through Advocate-on-Record, Ms. Charu Mathur and the other through Advocate-on-Record, Mr. Milind Kumar.
[Case Title: Ganesh Pawar And Ors. v. Union of India And Ors. WP(C) No. 247/2023]