NEET-MDS exam on March 18: Supreme Court rejects request for postponement

By Team Asianet Newsable  |  First Published Mar 15, 2024, 3:09 PM IST

The bench, comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, observed that the petitioners raised the issue at the last minute, despite nearly 28,000 candidates set to appear for the exam.


The Supreme Court on Friday (March 15) rejected a plea to postpone the NEET-MDS (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Master of Dental Surgery) examination scheduled for Monday, March 18. The application, filed by dentists seeking parity with the NEET-PG (Post Graduate) medical examination scheduled for July 7, was dismissed by a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud.

The bench, comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, observed that the petitioners raised the issue at the last minute, despite nearly 28,000 candidates set to appear for the exam. Originally seeking an extension of the March 31, 2024 deadline for completing internships, the petitioners' concerns were addressed as the Centre extended the deadline to June 30.

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Following the internship deadline extension, the examination registration portal was open from March 9-11, allowing 568 candidates to register and become eligible for the NEET-MDS exam. Considering these developments, the bench deemed it inappropriate for judicial intervention at this stage, declining to intervene in the matter.

On February 21, the Supreme Court had addressed similar concerns raised by as many as 11 dentists regarding the internship deadline extension. The court allowed them to submit a representation to the Centre and said, "Since the issue of fixing cut-off date essentially pertains to the policy domain, it would be more appropriate to submit a representation... We direct that the representation be dealt with expeditiously and preferably within a period of one week from the date of this order."

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