Delhi HC dismisses petition to postpone NEET-UG exam scheduled on July 17

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) aspirants seeking to postpone the competitive examination for the year 2022 which is scheduled to be held on July 17,and stated that it was totally a ‘misconceived’ plea with ‘no merit’. The high court mentioned such kind of petitions should be totally discouraged and added that as the petitioners were students so it was not going harsh on them, otherwise it would have imposed costs.

The high court made it clear that if such matters are filed in the future, it will not shy away from imposing costs.

It questioned the petitioners’ counsel for approaching the court at the last moment as the exam for the undergraduate medical and dental courses was scheduled on July 17 and noted that vague statements were being made.

The petitioners had approached the court seeking to set aside the date fixed for the entrance test and re-schedule it after four to six weeks on several grounds, including that the schedule of the national level examinations, that is, NEET, JEE, and Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET), is ‘unorganised’ and the same has ’caused immense mental trauma and harassment resulting in 16 reported suicides of young students leaving their families in a state of despair’.

The petition stated that 12 grade board examination ended in mid of June 2022 and the students have been forced to prepare for three national-level examinations without getting sufficient time to prepare.

During the hearing, the court enquired as to when the schedule for the exam was released. To this, the petitioners’ counsel Mamta Sharma said the schedule was announced in April. “Why are you coming now? The schedule was announced in April, the exam is on July 17 and you are coming to court on July 14,” the court said.

As the counsel responded that the admit cards were not issued earlier and they were making representations and approaching authorities, the court said, “what do you expect at the fag end?” “How can 15 students decide whether the exam should be postponed or not? You were aware of all these things in April. These kinds of petitions should be totally discouraged. You cannot come at the end,” the judge, who was informed that 18.72 lakh students will be appearing in the exam, said.

The petitioners’ counsel submitted that there is a torrential flood situation across the nation and many authorities have already postponed their respective examinations therefore the authorities in the present instance can also be directed to reschedule the NEET-UG 2022 examination to save one precious year of education for aspirants.

The court said in India, its monsoon season presently and these situations keep on happening but it cannot be said that something happened in some districts so postpone the exam.

When the court sought for details of the students who have filed the petition, the counsel said the aspirants did not disclose the complete details as they were afraid that the authorities might take adverse action against them.

To this, the court said, “No student should feel scared. The courts are there for their help and for the help of citizens”.

While deciding the plea, the judge said, “I don’t want to give any anxiety to other students so I will just give the operative portion of the order now. There is absolutely no merit in the petition. The writ petition is dismissed. The detailed order will be made available later”.

Advocate T Singhdev, appearing for National Medical Commission, opposed the petition saying the exam will now be conducted on July 17 and the results will take another month, and thereafter, the counseling will begin.

He said the schedule will have to be compressed to bring it back on track from 2023 as everything was affected and delayed in the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “If the exam is postponed, there are chances that it will spill over again to the next year,” he said.

The counsel for National Testing Agency, which conducts the exam, contended that the petitioner aspirants knew well in advance about the exam, and out of 18 lakh students, 90% of them have already downloaded the admit cards.

He said there is an industry that seeks postponement of the exam every year and this needs to be stopped.

The petition filed by fifteen aspirants for undergraduate medical and dental courses, who belong to different States, said, “Respondents scheduled National Level examinations CUET, NEET- UG, and JEE in the month of July 2022 having a time gap of one or two days, wherein the syllabus of all three examinations is completely different.” “(Petitioners are) approaching this court seeking postponement of NEET-UG 2022 by four to six weeks to compensate the unfortunate mismanagement faced during the covid times and to allot appropriate time to students considering the peculiar circumstances as though examination held on time in 2021, the results were also declared on time but unfortunately due to the pendency of reservation policy issue before the Supreme Court counselling period got extended for six months,” it added.

With inputs from PTI.

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