The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to interfere in the "policy domain" of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-PG) 2022 and told aspirants to make a representation to the Centre for an extension of the May 31 deadline for completion of an internship as they were in COVID duties in 2021.
A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud asked the Centre to consider the representation expeditiously within one week upon receiving it.
It also took note of the submissions of MBBS students, who are aspirants of NEET-PG 2022, that they joined COVID duties due to which internship date got postponed and different states have different states to begin the internship.
The bench in its order stated, "The petitioners are doctors who are desirous of appearing for the ensuing NEET-PG examination. They are aggrieved by the cut-off date of May 31, 2022. The grievance of the petitioners is that many candidates such as the petitioners joined COVID duties as a result of which the period of their internship was postponed."
The Court further observed that at this stage it must be noted that one of the grounds on which the petition under Article 32 was moved was that there was a likely clash between the schedule for counselling for NEET-PG 2021 and NEET-PG 2022 examination. This aspect of the matter has now been resolved as a result of the postponement of the NEET-PG examination.
"Since the issue which has been raised by the petitioners require some element of determining facts as well as aspects of policy we are of the view that the ends of justice will be met by permitting the petitioners to submit a representation to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, setting out the nature of the hardship which is being faced by the students placed similarly to the petitioner. We request that the representation be considered expeditiously within one week of its submissions," the apex court in its order further stated.
In their plea, petitioners, Shivam Satyarthee and others sought postponement of the NEET scheduled to be held on March 12 for admissions to post-graduate medical courses. The government has postponed the examination for May.
The plea has also sought an extension of the deadline of completion of the internship from May 31.
They said the issue was that the deadline of May 31, 2022, has been fixed for completion of a one-year internship which was difficult to meet as the doctors after an announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi have got engaged in COVID duty.
( With inputs from ANI )
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