Postpone NEET-PG 2022 : Medical Students Association Moves Supreme Court

The All India Medical Students Association has filed a petition in  the Supreme Court to postpone the the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2022 exam scheduled on May 21 citing clash with ongoing counselling for NEET PG 2021.

"On behalf of All India Medical Students Association (AIMSA) we have moved Supreme Court of India against scheduled examination of NEET -PG 2022 dated 21st May, 2022. The aspirants raised own grievances due to mismatch / clashing of dates in ongoing counselling for NEET-PG 2021", Advocate Sandeep Tiwari, the lawyer of AIMSA, said in Twitter.

There is an ongoing campaign in social media by several medical students to postpone NEET-PG 2022. Several ssociations have written to President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to postpone the NEET PG exams 2022 citing delay in the counselling process.

Last month, the Supreme Court had dismissed a plea to extend the internship deadline of July 31 for NEET-PG 2022 saying that it will disrupt the academic schedule. Many students sought for extension of the internship deadline saying that they could not perform internship as they were called to engage in the COVID-19 duties. The original deadline of March 31 was extended to July 31 by the Centre following an earlier direction by the Court to consider the representation of students.

NEET-PG 2021 was postponed many times due to the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 PG exam, originally scheduled to be held in April 2021, was held only on September 11, 2021. The NEET-PG counselling got delayed due to a case pending in the Supreme Court challenging the implementation of EWS-OBC reservation in the All India Quota. It was in the first week of January 2022 that the Supreme Court allowed the counselling process to start based on the existing criteria for EWS-OBC reservation in AIQ. There were several cases filed against the counselling process as well. On March 31, the Court cancelled the mop-up round counselling in view of anomalies in the addition of 146 additional seats and directed the holding of a special round for the newly added seats. Some petitions are pending in the High Courts as well, challenging the counselling process for State Quota.

In 2020, the Supreme Court had dismissed a plea to postpone NEET exam on the ground of COVID-19.