SC refuses to defer NEET PG 2024, says can’t jeopardise exam for 2 lakh students

Ending the suspense of over 2 lakh medical students who are gearing up to appear for the upcoming NEET PG 2024 examination, the Supreme Court on Frida refused to defer the exam stating it cannot put the careers of so many candidates in jeopardy. NEET PG Supreme Court hearing live updates
Notably, the top court’s verdict came during a hearing on a plea seeking postponement of the NEET-PG examination, scheduled for August 11, wherein the petitioners claimed that candidates were allocated cities that are highly inconvenient for them to reach.
The Supreme Court bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, made it amply clear that the that the interests of a few petitioners could not overpower the broader concerns of the vast majority of students and their families.
Also read: NEET PG 2024 examinations to be conducted at 500 test Centres on August 11, centres ‘reduced’ as precautionary measure
The bench said, “As a matter of principle, we will not reschedule the exam. There are two lakh students and four lakh parents who will weep over the weekend if we postpone it. We cannot put the careers of so many candidates in jeopardy. We do not know who is behind these petitions.”
Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, who appeared for the petitioners, had submitted the plea for rescheduling the examination stating that it was needed because there is one exam in the morning and one in the afternoon.
He argued that the allocation of test centres had been made on short notice, which made it difficult for many candidates to plan their commute.
Furthermore, Hegde also raised concerns about the lack of transparency in the normalisation formula used to assess candidates across different batches.
Also read: NEET PG 2024: Ahead of SC hearing and barely 48 hours ahead of exam, medical aspirants flood social media with concerns
The Bench said “How can we postpone such an exam. Mr Sanjay Hegde, nowadays people just come asking to postpone the exam. It’s not a perfect world. We are not academic experts.
“Let there be some certainty…let there be certainty for the medical students at least now,” the bench added.
The exam was initially 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 other competitive exams.
It may be mentioned that the NEET PG 2024 was originally scheduled to be held on June 23, but got postponed owing to the paper leak controversies surrounding NEET and other entrance exams.
(With inputs from PTI)