NEET PG 2023: Supreme Court refuses to postpone exam, dismisses petition

NEET PG 2023: The Supreme Court of India has dismissed the petition demanding a postponement of NEET PG 2023. The top court has refused to postpone the exam on Monday. National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Post graduate (NEET PG) will be held on March 5, as scheduled. NBE has already released the NEET PG Admit Card today. 

NEET PG Counselling to begin by July 15

Additional Solicitor General of India told the court that the National Board of Examination plans to commence counselling by July 15 and the students who are yet to complete internship will be dealt with provisionally.

"In the first window, nearly two lakh three thousand students applied. Only six thousand students applied after the internship deadline was extended," the ASG said. 

"There is no available date in near future with our technology partner. We are trying the set the clock after the two years of pandemic. We want to start counselling from 15.07.2022 without waiting for the August date. The rest would be allowed to participate provisionally and would be considered on a case to case basis," he added. 

During the last hearing on February 24, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta asked the National Board of Examination (NBE) in Medical Sciences to come up with certain information and a solution and adjourned the matter for February 27. Earlier, the NBE had told the Supreme Court that around 2.09 lakh candidates have registered for the NEET PG 2023 and if it is postponed, no alternative date for conducting the exam may be available in the near future.

What was the demand of NEET aspirants?

Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) founder Dr Manish Jangra claimed that the counselling after the exam is likely to be held in July, so a large number of interns may face issues with eligibility. 

"There will be a large gap between the counselling date and the examination date. This time could be utilised by students to study for the examination," he said, adding that from March to July, these doctors will not get any jobs as well. "So, the date should be moved to a later month. We also want to convey that this is the year where we are adjusting to the delays caused by the Covid pandemic in which the healthcare sector has played a major role. So, we request the government to postpone NEET-PG 2023 with immediate effect so as to allow maximum interns to take part in the examination," he added. 

Notably, lakhs of medical graduates have been staging various protests across the country demanding to postpone NEET PG. National Eligibility Entrance Test for postgraduate programmes is scheduled to be held on March 5. MBBS graduates filed the petition in the top court demanding to push the date further.