When the Supreme Court is hearing the pleas seeking postponement of the NEET PG examination, the National Medical Commission has published a speaking order on its website today saying that the NEET PG examination will be conducted on March 5 as scheduled, while rejecting the representation made by the petitioners who had earlier approached the Telangana High Court.

The Order issued by the Deputy Secretary, Post Graduate Medical Education Board of the National Medical Commission elucidated the following grounds:

a. The date of exam was already fixed 6 months in advance and a notice in this regard was placed on NBE website on 16.09.2022.

b. Initially, when the cut-off date for completion of internship was 31st March 2023, more than 2 lakh students had already registered for exam and had not objected regarding the date of the exam.

c. After representations from various State Government/Universities, the cut-off date of internship was extended to 11.08.2023 and surprisingly only 5000 additional applications were received which constitutes about 2% of the total candidates who are going to take the exam. Postponing the exam will create a problem for 98% of the students who have been studying/preparing for the NEET PG Exam and have represented to not to postpone the date of examination.

d. All the preparations are over and the test is to be conducted at more than 800 centers for more than 2 lakh students.

e. The Academic Session is planned to be started in July, 2023 or as early as possible after counseling.

Last Wednesday, a Division Bench of the High Court for the State of Telangana refused to postpone the NEET PG examination. It was contended before the High Court that sufficient time was not granted to the medical students who graduated in the year 2021-22 to prepare for the entrance examination.

The High Court disposed of the petitions pertaining to admissions in P.G courses in Medical Sciences and Dental Sciences by its common order dated February 15, 2023, directing the petitioner students to submit a fresh representation seeking postponement of the NEET examination.

The Court said that “upon such representation being received, the respondents shall consider and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law as expeditiously as possible by keeping in mind that the Entrance Examination is scheduled to be held in the first week of March, 2023”.

The petitioners have approached the High Court contending that the NEET PG examination which is scheduled to be held on March 5 be postponed for a reasonable time so that the petitioners can prepare for the examination.

In response, the National Medical Commission had contended that the NEET admission notification was issued in September 2022 and all the arrangements were made across the country to conduct the NEET P.G examination on March 5, 2023 and if the examinations are postponed, there will be a chaotic situation in the entire country.

Further, it was said before the High Court that for the next academic year, every effort will be taken to ensure all the candidates who have completed MBBS/BDS course are made eligible and every opportunity will be given to the students to prepare for the examination and take up the examination.

In the meantime, multiple writ Petitions were filed by students under Article 32 of the Constitution seeking direction to defer the NEET-PG 2022-23 examination by three months in view of the revised internship cut-off date of August 11, 2023 and further in view of the fact that the counselling will not start before that date in terms of Clause 4.4 of the Information Bulletin.

Click here to read/download the Speaking Order