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The Supreme Court on Friday refused to postpone the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Postgraduate) examination scheduled for August 11, saying it can't put the careers of two lakh candidates in jeopardy for five students who have filed the petition.
The top court dismissed a plea seeking deferment of the NEET-PG which claimed that candidates have been allocated cities that are highly inconvenient for them to reach.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said judges are not academic experts.
"How can we postpone such an exam. Mr Sanjay Hegde, nowadays people just come asking to postpone the exam. It's not a perfect world. We are not academic experts.
"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 two lakh candidates in jeopardy at the behest of five petitioners. We cannot do this. Let there be certainty for medical students. We do not know who is behind these petitions," the bench said.
Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that rescheduling NEET-PG is needed because one set of aspirants will take the exam in the morning and another in the afternoon because of the paucity of examination centres. He urged the bench to issue directions to conduct the exam in a single batch to ensure a uniform and fair testing environment for all candidates.
The plea filed by Vishal Soren and others said many candidates have been allocated cities which are highly inconvenient for them to reach. It said the test cities were allotted on July 31 and the specific centres will be declared on August 8.
While the allocation of the centres was done to curb malpractices, the plea said, due to the paucity of time, it is difficult for the candidates to make arrangements for travel to specific cities.
"Issue a writ in the nature of Mandamus ...the Respondents (National Board of Examinations) to reschedule the NEET-PG 2024 examination," stated the plea filed by Vishal Soren.
The NEET-Postgraduate exam was initially supposed to be held on June 23.
It was postponed by the Union health ministry as a "precautionary measure" in the wake of alleged irregularities in certain competitive exams.