NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused further postponement of NEET-PG, slated for May 21 for admission to PG medical courses, saying any further delay in holding the test would lead to lack of availability of full strength of resident doctors in hospitals, impeding patient care facilities.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant said NEET-PG 2022-23, which was earlier scheduled to be held on March 12, has already been postponed to May 21 because of the pandemic-caused delay in examination and admissions to PG medical courses through NEET-PG 2021-22.
“As the country is getting back on track after pandemic-caused delays, any further delay in holding NEET-PG will delay the admissions and lead to fewer resident doctors in hospitals, which are operating with two batches of resident doctors instead of the general requirement of three batches,” the bench said.
It agreed with additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati that postponing the examination further could have debilitating cascading effect on patient care as well as next examinations, which would be held in January 2023 as per the schedule laid down by the SC in Ashish Ranjan case in 2016.
“The National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has already booked online test centres across the country,” Bhati said.
