The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked doctors, mostly final year medical students, who worked as frontline workers in COVID wards, with a request to the government to extend the prescribed time limit to complete their internship programme. asked to contact.
Completion of internship is a prerequisite for taking the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test – Post Graduate (NEET-PG) 2022.
These doctors, who are risking their lives during the pandemic, want more time to complete their internship program and take the NEET PG exam. The last date to complete the internship is 31st May.
However, the COVID duties and the fact that different states adhere to different timelines for their internship programmes, have made it impossible for the petitioner-doctors to finish on time for the examination on May 31.
“Many candidates like the petitioner joined COVID duties, as a result of which their period of internship was postponed… Also, different institutes in different states have different dates for starting internship and many of them have expired dates. The cut-off which has been prescribed has resulted in loss of one year,” submitted senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi for the petitioners.
A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud agreed with the gravity of the issue but said the court would not interfere in such a policy matter. The bench instead gave liberty to the petitioners to write directly to the health ministry.
“Since the issue raised by the petitioners requires certain elements of setting out the facts as well as aspects of the policy, we are of the view that the goal of justice would be served by allowing the petitioners to make a representation to the Union Ministry health and family welfare, determining the nature of the difficulty,” the court said in the order.
The bench then asked the ministry to take a decision on the representation of the petitioners, if they ever decide to file it, within a week.
“We request that the representation be considered expeditiously within a week of its presentation. We may also clarify that in view of the fact that the Court is leaving it open for the petitioners to transfer the MoHFW, No opinion has been expressed on the merits of the matter,” the bench noted.
The petition argued that the May 31, 2022 deadline provided under clauses 4.1 and 4.2 of the Information Bulletin for NEET-PG 2022 was clearly arbitrary as it debarred thousands of candidates from applying for the examination. Had given.
One of the major issues raised in the petitions was to postpone the examination. Earlier this exam was to be held on March 12.
However, the government postponed the examination when the matter came up for hearing in the apex court.