From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea to extend the deadline for NEET-PG internship beyond July 31 that was earlier fixed at May 31.
A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Bela M Trivedi said the deadline cannot be extended since it would disrupt the academic schedule, observing that whenever the cutoffs are changed, there is always a likelihood of some agree and others not.
It said the court does not want to micromanage the curriculum and so it considers not appropriate to interfere.
The petitioners had claimed that many MBBS graduates would not be able to take up the exam due to non-completion of the mandatory internship period. They sought directions to the National Board of Examination to defer the scheduled test until various requirements such as completion of the mandatory internship, set forth in the PG regulations, are met by most aspirants.
The petition pointed out that the internship of several hundred MBBS graduates was halted due to their duty in tackling Covid-19 pandemic and they would be rendered ineligible from appearing in the NEET-PG test due to the lack of mandatory internship for not their fault.
It also referred to the statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 3 last year to postpone NEET-PG 2021 by at least four months and the fact that the services of final year MBBS doctors will be utilised to handle mild Covid cases.
One of the regulations says 30 beds of a hospital are to be assigned to one unit of students pursuing the PG court and now two students of two academic sessions will have to be accommodated in the same facility.
