NEET PG 2022 : Supreme Court Dismisses Plea To Extend Internship Deadline Saying It Will Disrupt Academic Schedule

The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Bela M Trivedi rejected the petitioners' prayer observing that extension of deadline will disrupt the academic schedule.

"Whenever there is a cut-off some students are likely to fall on either line of dividing line. Any extension of the cut off would result in the disruption of the education schedule as indicated by the Additional Solicitor General. The alternative prayer for including of CoVID duties in internship would also involve the court to micromanage the curriculum. Though there will undoubtedly be an element of hardship, it would not be possible for this stage to disrupt the education of a large body of students. Hence in the considered view of the court it will not be appropriate to interfere", the bench observed in the order.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, on instructions from the Department, submitted that July 31 is the maximum deadline to which the internship can be extended.  The exam is scheduled in May and the counselling is scheduled in the 3rd or 4th weeks of July and classes are to start from August. If the internship deadline is further extended, the ASG said, the next academic session will be disrupted. She pointed out that the deadline was otherwise March 31 and it was extended considering the pandemic situation.

"If we accept their(petitioners') submission everything will go for a toss and will have cascading effect", Justice Chandrachud observed.

Senior Advocate Gopal Shankaranarayan submitted that the petitioners could not do the internship as they were doing COVID-duties as per the appeal made by the Prime Minister. He requested that the COVID duty period be treated as internship. However, the ASG replied that the said request cannot be accepted as COVID duties do not cover all specialities. To accept the petitioners' request will amount to diluting the internship program, the ASG submitted.

"In these medicines cases, the Government of India needs to get its act together. They must come with some generosity. It is saddening to see this. When you require people, because of Covid requirements, the government asked them to go and do the duties. Now their one year will get wasted", Shankaranarayan submitted.  

"We have to draw a balance", Justice Chandrachud responded.

The initial internship deadline for 2022 admissions was May 31. In Febraury, the Court had directed the Centre to consider a representation to further extend the deadline, following which it was extended to July 31.

Details Of The Plea

The petitioners had also an sought relief to allow the candidates who fail to complete the internship till July 31 but are eligible as per the terms of the Information Bulletin to apply for the exam.

Relief for considering exclusion of the period when the candidate served in covid duty from the one-year internship period, subject to the candidate fulfilling other requirements regarding eligibility for NEET-PG 2022 has also been sought.

It has been argued in the petition that the revised deadline of 31.07.2022 still leaves thousands of candidates particularly from the state of Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir and Kerala (among other states) as ineligible to apply for NEET-PG 2022-23 since they won't be able to conclude their internship within the stipulated time.

"The same will not only unjustly deprive the candidates from applying for NEET-PG 2022-23 exam but will also lead to wastage of entire year," the petition states.

The doctors have further contended that while they had joined for covid duties, neither the National Board of Examination, nor the colleges informed them that serving as covid warriors would delay their commencement of internship and could also affect the registration for NEET-PG 2022-23.

In this regard they have averred that for several candidates internship which had to commence from March- April 2021 got postponed to September-October 2021.

The petitioners are represented by Dubey Law Associates and the petition has been filed by Advocate Charu Mathur.

Case Title: Shikhar & Another v National Board of Examination| Writ Petition (Civil) 208/2022