The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging a decision of the National Medical Commission (NMC) to not to conduct NEET-Super Speciality examination this year. The top court rejected the plea maintaining that the postponement was 'fairly equitable' and not 'arbitrary'.
The court also asked the medical body to decide the schedule of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Super Speciality (NEET-SS) for early next year. Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud has directed the medical body to release the schedule of the exam within thirty days.
NMC maintained that postgraduate medical courses, which started in 2022 instead of 2021 due to Covid-19, will conclude in January 2025. If the NEET-SS is conducted this year these students will be deprived of the opportunities to take up this test.
NMC added that every year, around 40 per cent examinees, who would take up the NEET-SS, belong to current batches of the postgraduate medical courses.
News agency PTI quoted the bench as saying, "The students drawn from the 2021 PG batches (whose courses commenced in January 2022 and will be passing in January 2025) would be deprived of the opportunity to compete. This would result in a situation where two batches of the candidates would be competing for the same seats in the NEET-SS 2025 exam. Having understood the rival perspectives, it is not possible to reject the NMC's submissions."
The bench noted that the petitioners have already appeared for NEET-SS exam earlier and hence, they will not be prejudiced.
"On the other hand if the NEET-SS is held in 2024, a situation would arise where the students, passing out in January 2025, would be deprived of appearing in the NEET-SS exam. There may be an element of hardship for petitioners, but hardship has to be balanced in light of the NMC affidavit," it said.
"Therefore, the decision of the NMC is fairly equitable and cannot be termed as arbitrary," the bench said while dismissing the petition.
The top court on July 19 had issued a notice to the NMC on the plea filed by 13 doctors including Rahul Balwan.
What is NEET-SS
The NEET-SS is conducted for doctors having post-graduate degrees like MD, MS and DNB, or an equivalent qualification for admission to super-speciality courses. As per news reports, NEET-SS is likely to be conducted in January 2025.
(With inputs from PTI)