Supreme Court rejects plea against decision to cancel NEET-Super Speciality exam 2024

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a plea challenging a decision of the National Medical Commission (NMC) to cancel the NEET-Super Speciality examination this year, saying it was "fairly equitable."

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra rejected a petition filed by Dr Rahul Balwan and 12 other doctors, finding no merit in it, even as they claimed the decision to defer the examination was in breach of the SC judgment in Ashish Ranjan case on fixed timeline.

"The NMC’s decision is fairly equitable and this court is not inclined to tinker with the exam calendar," the bench said.

However, the court directed the NMC to come out with a fresh schedule within one month.

During the hearing, the bench noted that the data given by the NMC suggested that at least 40 per cent of the students who take the NEET-SS are from the immediately preceding batch.

The bench observed that petitioners, who have appeared in the NEET-SS before, would not be prejudiced if the exam is deferred to next year. The NMC counsel submitted that if NEET-SS is conducted this year, then the students of the 2021 postgraduate batch would lose the opportunity.

According to NMC, admissions were delayed for MD, MS, and DMB courses through the NEET-PG exam in 2021. Due to Covid-19, these admissions were held from January 2022 to May 2022, pushing the course completion to January 2025, and it is the reason for not conducting the NEET-SS 2024. Therefore, it was decided to postpone the NEET-SS 2024 exam to accommodate these students.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Super Speciality (NEET-SS) exam can be taken by doctors having post-graduate degrees like MD, MS and or an equivalent qualification or degree for getting admission to super-speciality courses.