The Supreme Court on Friday refused to postpone the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test - Master of Dental Surgery (NEET MDS 2024), which is scheduled for March 18, 2024, according to Hindustan Times. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud declined to defer the exam noting that the petition, filed by dentists, was moved at the last minute.
As per the outlet, the CJI noted that around 28,000 medical aspirants will appear for the examination and the petitioners had moved the application at the last minute in their petition. The petitioners had initially asked for extending the March 31, 2024 deadline for the completion of internship for becoming eligible for NEET-MDS.
The court noted that the matter was already resolved as the Centre extended the internship deadline to June 30. An official notification by NBEMS had said, "Desirous candidates who are completing their internship during 01.04.2024 to 30.06.2024 and are fulfilling all other criteria as prescribed in the Information Bulletin of NEET-MDS 2024 can apply for NEET-MDS 2024."
Following this decision, the registrations for the exam was opened for three days from March 9-11. Around 568 candidates registered and became eligible to appear for the examination.
Earlier, the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) had written a letter to the Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya for rescheduling the NEET MDS -2024 exam. As per news agency ANI, the team of doctors from FORDA had urged the minister to consider their plea, which was aimed at resolving the issue of ineligibility and give a fair shot to aspirants.
Medical aspirants had submitted a petition urging the top court to instruct the National Medical Commission (NMC) to postpone NEET MDS 2024 to July and extend the internship cut-off date. NEET MDS 2024 is slated for March 18.
