Summary
MBBS graduates still participating in NEET-PG 2021 counselling, which ran into May 2022, petitioned under Article 32 to quash the notification scheduling NEET-PG 2022 on 21 May 2022, to postpone it by about eight weeks and to reopen registration, closed on 25 March 2022. The Union opposed: postponement had been consciously rejected, 2,06,541 doctors had registered, only two batches of resident doctors were available in hospitals because of pandemic delays, and the session was already four months behind the schedule fixed in Dr Ashish Ranjan. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition: postponements granted during the Covid waves should not become the norm; examination scheduling lies in the policy domain and will not be disturbed unless arbitrary or without application of mind; and the needs of patient care are paramount.
Issues
- Whether the Supreme Court should direct postponement of the NEET-PG 2022 examination scheduled for 21 May 2022 and reopen registration, on the ground that candidates participating in NEET-PG 2021 counselling, which overlapped with the examination schedule, were denied a fair opportunity in violation of Articles 14 and 21.
Provisions considered
- Articles 14, 21 and 32, Constitution of IndiaThe petitioners invoked Article 32 claiming the overlap between NEET-PG 2021 counselling and the NEET-PG 2022 examination violated Articles 14 and 21; the Court held that scheduling of the examination is a policy matter for the executive, interference being warranted only where the decision was taken without application of mind to relevant circumstances or was manifestly arbitrary, which was not shown. (¶¶ 1, 4, 14)
Held
- The petitioners were not barred from registering for NEET-PG 2022, for which over two lakh doctors have registered and whose schedule would be seriously affected by a further postponement; the submission that postponement would cause no prejudice to the Union Ministry of Health is specious. Postponement of examinations results in chaos and uncertainty; postponements granted during the Covid waves in an unprecedented human crisis should not become the norm, as that would disturb the sanctity of medical education, and the Ministry's decision to adhere to the schedule, taken because delay reduces the number of resident doctors available for patient care and burdens existing doctors, must be accepted. (¶¶ 9, 12, 13)
- Though the concern of candidates who must sit NEET-PG 2022 immediately after NEET-PG 2021 counselling is understandable, such matters pertain to the policy domain; unless the Court is satisfied that the decision was taken without application of mind to relevant circumstances or was manifestly arbitrary, there is no reason to interfere. The clash between students seeking postponement and the larger body who have registered must be resolved with the needs of patient care and treatment as paramount, and balancing such priorities in administration is entrusted to the executive, not the courts. (¶ 14)
Result
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 341 of 2022 under Article 32 dismissed; no postponement of the NEET-PG 2022 examination scheduled for 21 May 2022 and no extension of the registration deadline of 25 March 2022.