NEET-PG 2022: Aspirants exhausted of confusion; Supreme Court to hear plea today

Supreme Court bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud will hear NEET-PG postponement plea today 

“Waking up with anxiety, filling with hopes, by evening everything feels devastated, depression of wasting a day succumbs to sleep, waking up next day, one day less, with more anxiety & depression,” says Dr Sumit Gulati, one of the NEET-PG aspirants highlighting the condition of thousands of aspirants who are confused regarding examination being conducted on May 21 or not.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Post Graduate or NEET-PG is scheduled to be held on May 21. For the past few weeks, NEET-PG 2022 aspirants are demanding the exam be postponed by eight to ten weeks, because of multiple reasons, the most important one being NEET-PG 2021 counselling still going on, as well as thousands of aspirants yet to complete their internship, which got delayed due to COVID-19 last year, thus leaving them ineligible to appear for the exam.

Various student associations and political leaders including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi have also appealed to the central government to look into the demands of the medical students and postpone the NEET-PG by two months.

Supreme Court to hear NEET-PG plea today

Doctors have also knocked on the doors of the apex court in the country, and the Supreme Court of India will hear their plea today, where they have pleaded to seek to postpone NEET-PG 2022 exam. A bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud to hear the matter as the petitioners have stated that the exam clashes with ongoing NEET-PG 2021 counselling.

It is also being stated that over 5000 medical interns are yet to complete their internship, because of which they will be ineligible for the NEET-PG 2022. More than 5000 interns from Kerala, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand will be ineligible to write the NEET PG due to a delay in the completion of their internship owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The students have been demanding NEET PG 2022 exams be postponed by two months to provide sufficient time for the students to prepare for the exams and also provide an opportunity for the serving interns from the aforementioned five states to appear for the exam this year itself.

Though various associations are trying hard to get the exam postponed to help the aspirants, the aspirants are also preparing simultaneously for the exam as it will be a loss of a year if they do not appear.
Pallabh, another aspirant says: “I am a NEET-PG 2022 aspirant. Although I have completed my whole syllabus and am in my revision phase and quite ready for the exams on 21st, still see the tragedy of so many doctors, I decided to stand for them It's not about me but the fraternity as a whole. This is no longer about the postponement. This is about the respect we doctors deserve.”

Why Postpone NEET-PG Exam?

The counselling of NEET-PG 2021 which is going on for the last several months was supposed to end in March after the counselling process was upheld by the Supreme Court, which began with a delay of four months. At the same time, NEET-PG 2022 examination was scheduled to be held in March which was further extended till May 21, 2022 keeping in mind the delayed counselling.
But due to the order of the Supreme Court, the counselling which was supposed to end in March was completed after the order of the National Medical Commission on May 7 due to the special second round and cancellation of the MOP-UP round counselling.

There is very less time for 2021 counselling and 2022 exam date. Many students did not fill out the form for NEET-PG 2022 because of this.

“The future of thousands of students is at stake as a result of conflict between the counselling process of NEET PG 2021 and the date of the NEET PG 2022 examination and not getting enough time for preparation,” said Dr Shivangi Saraswat, hoping for the exam to get postponed.

The students are demanding examination date of NEET-PG 2022 should be extended by a minimum of 2 months and the pending counselling of NEET-PG 2021 should be completed at the earliest.

Another aspirant, on condition of anonymity, said: “Tried luck in Counseling, got branch but not college I wanted. Attended till stray. I was very disappointed and exhausted. We are just wanting a little time. For me, even four weeks is enough.”

Why govt against Exam Postponement

The NEET-PG exam was to be held in March, which was later scheduled for May due to various delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic last year. However, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is not willing to further postpone it as the NEET exam in 2023 will be held in January. The government want to streamline the exam schedule which got disrupted due to COVID in the past two years. Many of the states are also not in favour of exams getting postponed.

Another aspirant, Dr. Sananda D writes: “The wisest are those who sat blank and studied, who are neutral, neither postponement nor anti postponement. All these happening all day draining the mental health, easier said than done. It's painful to beg for the rights, for the things which we deserve and yet not turned a deaf ear to. It's easier to drop another year than getting drained every day.”

Another one says: “We are requesting the ministry to kindly postpone the NEET PG 2022 exam by 10 weeks. We are mentally exhausted between counselling and the exam date. Kindly do the needful.”

Read More:

• NEET-PG 2022 will be held on May 21, NBEMS issues fresh notice
• NEET-PG Postponement: Medical students to protest today demanding exam postponement