The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition filed by a group of students seeking to postpone the NEET-PG exam scheduled for Sunday, emphasizing that delaying the exam would put the careers of nearly 2 lakh candidates at risk. The exam, which is crucial for admission to post-graduate medical courses, had already been postponed once from its original date of June 23 due to concerns over irregularities in the NEET-UG exam.
The petitioners argued that many candidates were facing difficulties in reaching their assigned exam centers, which were communicated to them on July 31. Additionally, they raised concerns about the short notice given regarding the exact exam centers, which were only disclosed on Thursday, just days before the scheduled test. The students also expressed uncertainty about the formula for normalizing scores, as the exam was set to be conducted in two sessions.
However, the Supreme Court, led by a bench including Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices Manoj Misra and JB Pardiwala, ruled against the postponement. The court noted that it could not justify rescheduling the exam so close to the date, particularly when a large number of candidates were involved.
“How can we postpone such an exam? Nowadays people just come asking to postpone the exam. It’s not a perfect world. We are not academic experts,” the bench remarked, highlighting the challenges of managing such a large-scale examination.
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The court further stressed that the needs of a few petitioners could not outweigh the interests of the vast majority of candidates and their families. “There are 2 lakh students and 4 lakh parents who will be affected. We cannot put the careers of so many candidates at risk just because of these petitioners,” the bench stated.
The NEET-PG exam had previously been postponed on June 22, just a day before it was initially scheduled, following the government’s decision to conduct a thorough review of the examination process amid concerns over the NEET-UG paper leaks. This unexpected delay had caused significant inconvenience to many candidates, some of whom had traveled with their families to attend the exam.
Despite the challenges raised by the petitioners, the Supreme Court’s decision to proceed with the exam as planned underscores the importance of maintaining the examination schedule to ensure the smooth progression of the academic calendar for post-graduate medical courses.
