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NEET-SS to follow old pattern this year, Centre tells Supreme Court
NEET-SS exam date: The Centre told Supreme Court that authorities may need a couple of months more to conduct the NEET-SS exam which was earlier scheduled for November 12 and 13 as the whole process needs to be changed.
The Centre on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that in the “interest of students”, it has decided to implement the revised pattern for National Eligibility Entrance Test-Super Speciality (NEET-SS) examination from the next academic year.
It also indicated that authorities may need a couple of months more to conduct the exam which was earlier scheduled for November 12 and 13 as the whole process needs to be changed.
A bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, Vikram Nath and BV Nagarathna disposed off a batch of pleas of 41 post-graduate doctors after additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati said that the revised pattern, which was announced on August 31, won’t be incorporated in the exams this year.
“Having regard to the interest of the body of students who would have commenced preparations for the ensuing NEET-SS examination before the change in the pattern was notified, a decision has been taken by the Union government in consultation with the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to give effect to the modified pattern only from the academic year 2022-2023,” Bhati said.
“The Centre will try to hold the examination within two months. But the whole process is expected to take some more time as the entire process under the new system needs to be changed,” she added.
Earlier, the Centre had told the court that it had decided to defer the exam to January 10 and 11, to give ample time to students to prepare under the new pattern. However, following its submissions today, it is yet to confirm the exam dates.
The Centre’s submission came a day after it was pulled up by the top court for bringing last-minute changes to the exam pattern.
In their petitions, the doctors complained that the examination was notified on July 23, but on August 31, the NBE, which conducts NEET-SS, announced a change in the exam pattern for NEET-SS for admission to over 4,200 seats for DM (Doctorate of Medicine), M.Ch (Master of Surgery) and DrNB (Doctorate of National Board). The doctors said they had prepared for the exam based on the older pattern used since 2018.
Recording the submissions of the ASG, the bench said: “Since the Union government and expert bodies have taken a decision to hold the ensuing NEET-SS examinations for 2021-2022 on the basis of the pattern which held the field until academic year 2020-2021, it is not necessary for this court to adjudicate upon the validity of the modified pattern proposed for 2022-2023… In the circumstances, the petitions under Article 32 of the Constitution are disposed of.”
After advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for one of the petitioners, said that issues pertaining to the revised pattern should be kept open as the same would be implemented next year, the bench said: “That issue (with regard to modified examination pattern for 2022-23) is kept open.”
In their pleas, the doctors pointed out that the existing exam pattern tested the candidate on their knowledge of the super specialty stream that they wished to pursue. The examination asked 60% questions from the super specialty of the candidate’s choice while the remaining 40% tested the candidate on a mix of broad specialty courses of which one was general medicine.
Under the new pattern, 100% questions were to come from the broad specialty course of general medicine.
The petitioners submitted that clinical practice was an important component for admission into super specialty courses. Due to this, many doctors practised in the super specialty stream to get admission into the course of their choice. Some even left their jobs and prepared for the examination for over a year.
The Centre, however, argued that the change in pattern was being considered with a view to reduce wastage of seats in private and government medical colleges. Last year, 805 out of 4,286 seats remained vacant while in 2019, the vacant seats totalled 545, Bhati said.
As the bench sought a break-up of the vacancies, Bhati said that out of 805 vacant super specialty seats reported in 2020, 561 were in private colleges.
A total of 414 colleges offer the super specialty course of which 296 are private-owned and 118 are run by the government, she said, adding that the Centre will require two months to conduct the examination as the whole process has to be reworked.
“The doctors’ fraternity stands vindicated because of the Supreme Court’s sensitivity to our cause. It is unfortunate that despite the services rendered by doctors in the last two years during Covid-19, the government did not make things easier for us. Now, we only hope and expect that the exams, which are already much behind schedule, are held at the earliest, to ensure that an academic year does not go to waste,” advocate Javedur Rehman, who appeared for all 41 doctors, said.
