NEET MDS 2024: SC Issues Notice on Plea Seeking Postponement, Internship Deadline Extension

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has now issued notice on the plea seeking the postponement of the NEET MDS 2024 examination and the extension of the internship completion deadline.

While considering the plea, the Apex Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submission by the petitioners that the decision to conduct NEET MDS 2024 on its scheduled date i.e. on March 18, 2024, is being done without factual ascertainment of the internship completion dates despite specific directions of the Telangana High Court in this regard in 2023.

Taking note of the matter, the top court bench agreed to issue notice. However, the bench denied granting any interim relief to the aspirants while noting that "It's only a matter of cut-off date".

The plea has been listed for further hearing on 21st February, 2024, Wednesday.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the NEET MDS aspirants have been demanding postponement of the examination for a long time. After getting no positive response from the Government authorities, the students recently sought legal help by filing a plea in this regard before the Supreme Court.

The aspirants have argued that they require more time for adequate preparation. Therefore, they have approached the Apex Court bench with the hope for a favourable resolution from the judiciary ensuring fairness and equal opportunity.

Also Read: NEET MDS Aspirants move Supreme Court Seeking Postponement

As per the latest media report by Live Law, the Supreme Court has now issued notice in a plea seeking postponement of NEET MDS 2024 and extension of internship completion deadline after taking note of the submission that the decision to conduct NEET MDS was arbitrary since it was being done without factual ascertainment of the internship completion dates despite the specific direction issued by the Telangana High Court last year.

Back in 2023, while considering a plea seeking rescheduling of NEET MDS 2023, the Telangana HC had disposed the matter noting, "Before parting with the case we also make it clear from the next academic year the respondent shall take steps to see that all the candidates who have completed MBBS/BDS course across the country a uniform cut off date be fixed and enough care is taken to ensure that sufficient time is granted to all the students to prepare for NEET."

This year, even though NEET PG 2024 was rescheduled from March 3rd to July 2024, and the cutoff was extended to August 15, 2024, NBE announced that NEET MDS 2024 would be conducted on March 18th, 2024 and the deadline for Internship completion would be March 31, 2024.

Referring to this, the counsel for the petitioners, Senior Advocate Mr. Gonsalves argued that some of the petitioners who completed the mandatory internship have registered for NEET MDS 2024. However, several interns are ineligible to register as their internship completion date is beyond 31.03.2024. Pressing for an earlier date of hearing, the petitioners' counsel informed the bench that February 19 is the last date to register for NEET MDS 2024 exam.

The plea sought revision of the cut-off date based on the parity with the earlier instances. It has been highlighted by the petitioner how in 2023, the Internship deadline for NEET MDS was officially extended until June 30, 2023. 

It was argued that the decision to withhold a similar extension for 2024, without verifying the actual internship completion dates, deems to be arbitrary and unsustainable as it contrasts the approach taken by the National Medical Commission (NMC), which assessed the internship completion dates before taking any decisions.

"It is evident that counselling has always commenced after the internship cut-off date. In 2023 too internship cut-off date was 30.6.2023 for NEET MDS and tentative common counselling for NEET PG and NEET MDS was issued only in August 2023. The internship cut-off for NEET PG 2023 was August 11 2023. Hence, after ascertaining the internship completion dates for 2024 by the National Medical Commission, the cut-off date was fixed as 15th August 2024 and the NEET PG-24 entrance date as 7th July 2024," further stated the plea.

The bench agreed to issue notice in the matter. However, it denied granting any interim relief while observing that it was a matter of cut-off only.

NEET MDS aspirants have been demanding the postponement of the exam to July like the NEET PG examination. Taking to social media, they have highlighted that even if the exam is conducted in March, the counselling would not commence soon.

According to the MDS aspirants, the counselling process for the NEET PG examination and NEET MDS are always conducted together. Therefore, with the NEET PG getting postponed to July, it is unlikely that NEET MDS counselling would be held anytime soon. Terming it to be an "injustice", the aspirants have been demanding that the NEET MDS exam also get postponed till July.