The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain the petitions seeking to postpone the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) examination for PG 2023, scheduled on March 5.
The Bench led by Justice Ravindra Bhatt dismissed the two petitions filed by doctors, seeking to appear in NEET-PG.
On February 17, the Apex Court had issued notice to the National Board of Examination in the matter.
The petitions had contended that NBE initially fixed the cut-off date for internship completion as March 31, 2023, when it first issued the notification for NEET-PG 2023 on January 7, 2023.
The cut-off date was extended to June 30 on January 13 and then to August 11, by way of a notification on February 7.
Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners, contended that although the cut-off date has been extended, since the exams were to be held on the initially announced date, the newly eligible candidates will not get adequate time to prepare
He submitted that out of more than two lakh aspirants who have enrolled for NEET-PG 2023, nearly 1.3 lakh candidates were amongst those who had completed their graduation in previous years and who could not make it through the Postgraduate programme in the previous terms.
The petitioners sought to defer the NEET-PG exam by three months in view of the fact that counselling cannot happen before August 11, 2023.
The petitioners alleged that the National Board of Examination issued the notice without checking with all the State Medical Councils regarding one of the most important aspect of eligibility.