The Supreme Court has rejected a plea challenging a decision of the National Medical Commission (NMC) to not conduct the NEET-Super Speciality examination this year. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra termed the NMC's decision 'fairly equitable' and refused to make changes in the exam calendar. The top court on July 19 issued a notice to the NMC on the plea filed by 13 doctors including Rahul Balwan.
Top court asks NMC to release exam schedule
According to a report published by Live Law, the top bench observed that the data shared by the NMC suggested that at least 40 per cent of the students who take the NEET SS are from the immediately preceding batch. The bench noted that the petitioners who have appeared in the medical exam before would not be prejudiced if the exam is postponed to next year. However, if the exam is conducted this year, then the 2021 postgraduate batch students who would be completing their courses in January 2025 would lose their chance. Therefore, the bench termed the NMC's decision as fairly equitable. The bench agreed to the fact that the delay in the examination procedure would cause some hardship to the petitioners which can be balanced with the other concerns raised by NMC.
The bench further directed the commission to release the exam schedule within the next thirty days from today. The bench also stated that the exam should be conducted within three months from January 2025.
Why will NEET SS Exam not be conducted this year?
As per NMC, the main reason for delaying the admission procedure of MD, MS, and DMB courses through the NEET PG exam in the academic session 2021 was the rescheduling of the entrance exam. Due to the pandemic COVID-19, the admission process for that’s year batch was delayed and was conducted between January 2022 to May 2022, which delayed the commencement of the new academic session. The course will now be completed in January 2025. Hence, the commission had decided to postpone the NEET-SS 2024 to accommodate these students, reported Live Law.
What is the NEET SS Exam?
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Super Speciality or NEET SS is a postgraduate super speciality medical entrance exam. The medical entrance exam is conducted by the National Board of Examinations for admission to the super specialities postgraduation courses like MD, MS and DNB, or an equivalent qualification.
