The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the National Board of Examination (NBE), National Medical Commission (NMC) and Central government for making last minute changes to the syllabus for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) PG Super Speciality exam 2021 (NEET SS 2021).
The Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna said that young doctors cannot be at the mercy of the insensitive bureaucrats and cannot be treated like a “football”, reports Bar and Bench.
The NEET SS 2021 is slated to be held on November 13 and 14. The dates for the exam were notified on July 23 but the syllabus change was announced on August 31 by way of an information bulletin.
“Why after exam notification? Why cannot it be made from next year. Students prepare for months for such exams. We will hear you but we are dissatisfied with the authorities. Just because you have power you are wielding power like this. Please speak to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to look at this. Don’t treat these young doctors as football in this game of power,” said Justice Chandrachud.
Justice Nagarathna added that the new syllabus looks more like the final exam and less like an entrance examination.
“Pattern of study is according to pattern of exams. If you change it suddenly then what will happen? This does not look like a entrance but like a final exam,” she said.
The plea by 41 PG qualified doctors challenged abrupt last-minute changes contending that the same was done to favour general medicine candidates.
The plea filed through advocate Javedur Rahman said that aspirants have all along been preparing in terms of the pattern that has been in place for the last three years, especially because on earlier occasions i.e. in 2018 and 2019 when changes in the pattern/scheme were proposed to be made, the changed pattern/scheme was made public almost six months prior to the exam.
The plea stated that dates of the NEET-SS 2021 were announced on July 23, 2021 but the changed pattern was made public more than a month thereafter on August 31 “when only 2 months remained before the NEET-SS, 2021 exams to be held on the 13th and 14th of November, 2021.”
This showed the manifest arbitrariness inherent in this decision, the petition said.
Justice Chandrachud observed that government should be open to strictures by Supreme Court if the top court does not find itself in agreement with the authorities’ decision.
“You cannot treat young doctors with insensitivity. You cannot deal with their lives like this,” stated the bench.
The top court then proceeded to list the matter for next Monday and granted time to the respondents to file a reply.
Senior Advocate Maninder Singh appeared for National Board of Examinatio, advocate Gaurav Sharma appeared for National Medical Commission while Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appeared for the Centre.
