SC rejects plea for postponement of NEET-PG 2022-23

SC rejects plea for postponement of NEET-PG 2022-23

 Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com 

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday refused further postponement of NEET-PG, slated for May 21 for admission to PG medical courses, saying any further delay in holding the test would lead to lack of availability of full strength of resident doctors in hospitals impeding patient care facilities.

 A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant said NEET-PG 2022-23, which was earlier scheduled to be held on March 12, has already been postponed to May 21 because of the pandemiccaused delay in exam and admissions to PG medical courses through NEET-PG 2021-22. It agreed with additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati that postponing the examination further could have debilitating cascading effect on patient care as well as next examinations which would be held in January 2023 as per the schedule laid down by the apex court in Ashish Ranjan case in 2016. “All preparations regarding NEET-PG Examination have been made. 

The National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences has already booked online test centres and is going to issue admit cards to the candidates soon. Any delay in the exam will be detrimental to the larger public and national interest,” Bhati said. › Fewer resident docs, P 5 ‘Further delay in exam will lead to fewer resident docs’ Appearing for candidates favouring postponement of NEET-PG, senior advocates Rakesh Khanna, Anand Grover and P Wilson complemented each other in giving variety of reasons, including helping the doctors who were underprepared because of Covid duty, to seek postponement of examination by eight weeks. 

Bhati said that more than 2 lakh MBBS doctors have already registered for the examination, the highest number in the last four years of NEETPG. She said that a majority, who had also worked hard during the pandemic, have registered and prepared for the examination and there should not be any postponement of the examination which would cause harassment to them. Bhati said any further delay in NEETPG 2022 will lead to fewer number of resident doctors (40,000) in hospitals as there are supposed to be three batches of doctors who are studying PG courses and are available for patient care and treatment in hospitals.