NEET SS 2021: Centre Proposes To Postpone Exam Till Jan, Defends Pattern Change In Affidavit To SC

NEET-SS 2021 Exam Pattern Change: The petition filed by 41 qualified post-graduate doctors from across the country sought direction for striking down the changes in the exam pattern.

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New Delhi: Centre in its affidavit has informed Supreme Court that it has decided to postpone post-graduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Super Specialty (NEET-SS) 2021 for 2 months.

The exam will be held on Jan 10-11, 2022, to provide ample time for entrance examination preparation under the revised scheme, Centre told the apex court in its affidavit, as reported by news agency ANI.

Centre in its affidavit informs SC that it has decided to postpone post-graduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Super Specialty (NEET-SS) 2021 for 2 months & to be held on Jan 10-11, 2022, to provide ample time for entrance examination preparation under the revised scheme

— ANI (@ANI) October 4, 2021

This comes after the Supreme Court sought responses from the Union government and National Medical Council (NMC) on a plea by post-graduate doctors over the alleged last-minute change in exam pattern for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Super Specialty (NEET-SS) 2021.

In its affidavit, the Union government has also defended its decision to change the exam pattern contending that it was done to ensure that seats do not go unfilled.

"On the basis of the experience in the past resulting into a significant number of precious super speciality medical courses seats remaining unfilled and going waste, the examination pattern has been modified, whereby it is reasonably expected that more number of these seats will get filled up and the wastage would be minimized," the government submitted, as quoted by Bar and Bench.

The matter is scheduled for hearing on Tuesday, IANS reported.

In a prior hearing, a Bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice BV Nagarathna gave a sharp response to the government over the issue as it commented: "Just because you have the power you are wielding power like this. Please speak to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to look at this. Don't treat these young doctors as football in this game of power".

"Young doctors cannot be at the mercy of the insensitive bureaucrats and cannot be treated like a football," the Bench told counsels appearing for the government, as quoted by news agency ANI.

NEET-SS 2021 Exam Pattern Change

The petition filed by 41 qualified post-graduate doctors from across the country, who aspire to become super-specialists by cracking NEET-SS 2021, sought direction for striking down the changes in the exam pattern, ANI reported.

The plea challenged the move of the government on the ground of lack of authority as well as being manifestly arbitrary.Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the petitioners, had submitted that notification for the examination, scheduled to be held in November this year, was issued on July 23. However, on August 31, 2021, another notification was issued changing the pattern of the exam when only 2 months remained before NEET SS 2021 exams scheduled to be conducted on November 13 and 14.

Divan contended that the exam pattern for the NEET-SS course has been altered only to favour those who have done post-graduation in general medicine at the cost of other disciplines. The plea stated that as per the prevailing pattern, which has been in existence from 2018 to 2020, 60 per cent marks were allotted from questions in the super-specialty while 40 per cent distributed for questions from feeder courses.

However, as per the new pattern, the entirety of questions for the critical care super speciality will be drawn from general medicines, it added. Divan argued that students from other disciplines were at a great disadvantage and the authority should not have brought these changes after the exam notification was issued and after the students had begun their preparations. It is a well-settled principle that the rules of the game cannot be changed after it has started, he added.

"They have all along been preparing in terms of the pattern that has been in place for the last three years, especially because on earlier occasions -- 2018 and 2019 when changes in the pattern/scheme were proposed to be made, the changed pattern/scheme was made public almost six months prior to the NEET-SS exams to ensure availability of ample time to the students for making preparations," the plea further stated. 

(With Agency Inputs)