Supreme Court Refuses NEET-PG Plea Seeking Postponement of Examination

The Supreme Court, on Friday, rejected the NEET-PG plea seeking to postponement of the examination. The bench of the Supreme Court, which includes Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice J.B. Pardiwala, said that it could not risk the careers of over two lakh students because the plea was only filed by five students.

“As a matter of principle, we will not reschedule the exam. There are two lakh students and four lakh parents who will weep over the weekend if we postpone it. We cannot put the careers of so many candidates in jeopardy” - CJI D.Y. Chandrachud stated

NEET-PG 2024 was originally scheduled for 23 July 2024. However due to the precautionary measure because of the alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG examination held earlier this year, the NEET-PG was rescheduled for August 11, 2024.

The petition argued that the last-minute allocation of exam centers created chaos and logistical disturbances for the candidates given the high cost of airfare and unavailability of train tickets. Moreover, several candidates were allotted cities which are highly inconvenient for them to reach.

Furthermore, the petitioners also expressed major concern about the exam being conducted in two phases and applying the normalization method. In response to these concerns, the Supreme Court has acknowledged that normalization may not be a perfect solution for this. The Chief Justice of India further added that the concerned authority may look out for some practical methods.