'Will not reschedule': Supreme Court refuses to postpone NEET PG 2024 exam

The Supreme Court dismissed the plea seeking to postpone the NEET-PG 2024 exam on Friday, August 9, just two days before the scheduled exam date of August 11.  "It is not a perfect world and cannot devise a new education policy. Will not reschedule the exams and put the careers of so many candidates at risk," the Supreme Court said.

The Supreme Court denied a request from a few students to postpone the NEET-PG test, which is set for this Sunday. The court stated that it could not jeopardise the careers of about two lakh applicants. The entrance test for post-graduate medical degrees was originally scheduled for June 23, but it was postponed once previously out of caution due to the controversy surrounding the NEET-UG anomalies.

The petitioners argued that the methodology for normalisation ought to be made public prior to the tests since there is a chance that one batch of applicants may encounter a more challenging question paper than the other batch. Additionally, they said that since the exam locations will only be made public two days prior to the exams, many applicants and the petitioners had been assigned to cities that would be extremely difficult for them to go there.

"At the behest of five petitioners, should we keep the careers of two lakh students in jeopardy?" the top court queried, noting that "two lakh students and four lakh parents will suffer" if the plea is granted. "We cannot jeopardise the careers of so many candidates just because of these petitioners," the Chief Justice declared. 

The CJI further said, “We all live in an extremely diverse nation.”

Appearing for the petitioners, senior attorney Sanjay Hegde said that it would be challenging for the applicants to sit two exams: one in the afternoon and one in the morning. The bench, led by Chief Justice Chandrachud and comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, rejected the plea and ordered, "We are not entertaining".

The NEET-PG entrance examination for medical courses was initially scheduled to be held on June 23. It was postponed by the Union Health Ministry as a "precautionary measure" in the wake of alleged irregularities in certain competitive exams.