The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with the matter concerning the NEET PG 2022 session, stating that it was a ‘policy decision,’ which should be taken by the Centre.
A Bench comprising Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath told the candidates to place their point of view with the Central government regarding the extension of deadline for the completion of internship on May 31, 2022.
The top court passed the order on a bunch of petitions regarding NEET PG 2022. Candidates who have passed PG course through NEET have sought extension of the deadline for completion of internship to May 31.
The candidates said they were on Covid-19 duty in 2021. Their internship has been delayed due to Covid duty, which was a crucial factor to appear in the NEET PG 2022 exam.
The Bench observed that one of the grounds on which the petition under Article 32 was moved was that there was a likely clash between the schedule for counselling for NEET PG 2021-2022 and the NEET PG examination for the ensuing academic year, which has been resolved with the postponement of the NEET PG examination.
On January 7, 2021, the Apex Court Bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice A.S. Bopanna had allowed the resumption of counselling for NEET PG and UG courses for 2021-2022 by upholding the constitutional validity of the 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Class and 10 per cent quota for the Economically Weaker Section as laid down in 2019 with the Rs 8 lakh annual income criteria.
Justice Chandrachud said, “We have upheld the validity of OBC. In EWS, we’ve upheld the criteria for this year so that the admissions are not dislocated for the current academic year. We will hear the petition with respect to to the EWS criteria later.”
He said the court accepted the Pandey Committee report. The counselling for NEET PG and UG will take place in consonance with the notification as given effect, Justice Chandrachud added.
Now, the Apex Court would specifically examine the feasibility of having Rs 8 lakh as a cap to avail the EWS quota for PG medical admissions as laid down by the Pandey Committee. The court said it would examine the rationale of Rs 8 lakh income criteria for EWS category in March-April 2022.
On January 6, Justice Chandrachud had remarked that the Court had been hearing this matter for two days, and said the Counselling should start in national interest.
The Apex Court heard the arguments of the petitioners represented by Senior Advocates Arvind Datar, Shyam Divan and P. Wilson.