The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging a decision of the National Medical Commission (NMC) to not conduct NEET-Super Speciality examination this year, saying the postponement was “fairly equitable” and not “arbitrary”.The top court, however, said the NMC must take an early decision on deciding the schedule of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Super Speciality (NEET-SS) which will be taken up early next year.
“The schedule shall be announced not later than within a period of thirty days from today,” a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said.
The bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, was in agreement with the submissions of the NMC that every year, around 40 per cent examinees, who would take up the NEET-SS, belong to current batches of the post graduate medical courses.
The counsel for the NMC said the PG medical courses, which started in 2022 instead of 2021 due to COVID-19, will conclude in January 2025 and if the NEET-SS is conducted this year then they will be deprived of the opportunities to take up this test.
“The students drawn from the 2021 PG batches (whose courses commenced in January 2022 and will be passing in January 2025) would be deprived of the opportunity to compete,” the bench noted.
“This would result in a situation where two batches of the candidates would be competing for the same seats in the NEET-SS 2025 exam…Having understood the rival perspectives, it is not possible to reject the NMC’s submissions,” the bench said.