MBBS Students seeking exemption from NExT exam move Supreme Court
New Delhi: Seeking exemption from the National Exit Test (NExT), a group of 30 MBBS students of the 2019 batch have now approached to the Supreme Court.
Urging the Apex court to direct that the previous rules that were in force in the year 2019 to be made applicable to them, the petitioner students have sought exemption from the National Exit Test Regulations, 2023.
Pointing out that they are not prepared to write the NExT Exam, the students in their plea have sought directions upon the National Medical Commission (NMC) to ensure that they are exempted from the common exit test, envisaged by the Apex medical commission NMC.
Also Read: With NExT deferred till further notice, Medicos seek refund of mock test fees
As per the latest media report by Bar and Bench, these students have also sought interim relief and prayed for the cancellation of the mock/practice test of the NExT exam, which is scheduled to be conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on July 28.
The plea has been filed before the Apex court bench at a time when recently the National Medical Commission (NMC) deferred the NExT examination for an indefinite period of time.
Confirming this decision, NMC in a public notice stated, "All the stakeholders are hereby informed that the National Exit Test (NExT) examination is deferred on the advice of the Ministry, dated 11.07.2023, till further directions from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare."
NMC NExT Regulations, 2023, were published in the official Gazette on June 28, 2023. "These Regulations shall come into force at once from the date of their publication in the official Gazette," mentioned the apex medical commission.
However, opposing the decision of conducting the NExT exam for the 2019 batch, the students and doctors termed it to be a violation of the NMC Act, 2019. Students had been protesting across the country against the implementation of the examination for the 2019 batch.
According to Section 49 of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, "(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, any student who was studying for a degree, diploma or certificate in any medical institution immediately before the commencement of this Act shall continue to so study and complete his course for such degree, diploma or certificate, and such institution shall continue to provide instructions and examination for such student in accordance with the syllabus and studies as existed before such commencement, and such student shall be deemed to have completed his course of study under this Act and shall be awarded degree, diploma or certificate under this Act."
Referring to this, doctors pointed out that the 2019 MBBS batch started on August 1, 2019, i.e. the batch started before the publication of the NMC Act 2019. The doctors argued that conducting NExT for the 2019 batch would be violation of the NMC Act 2019.
Amidst the confusion among the medicos regarding the implementation of NExT for the 2019 batch, the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced at a recent event at AIIMS Raipur that there will be no NExT Exam for the 2019 MBBS Batch and the exam will not replace the final MBBS examinations.
Earlier publishing the NMC NExT Regulations 2023 and the Information Brochure for the exam, the apex medical commission announced that NExT would be conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). It was also announced that the exam will be made applicable for the MBBS 2019 batch.
NExT was scheduled to be held in two parts. While Step 1 of the examination was proposed to be held as the common exit exam, Step 2 was announced to be held as a pass/fail i.e. licentiate examination. It was further decided that the scores in NExT Step 1 would be considered for admission to the PG medical courses.
Releasing the information brochure for NExT exam, NMC had earlier informed that a mock/practice test for NExT would be conducted on July 28, 2023, and the registration for the same started on June 28, 2023.
With the NMC Notice, the NExT examination has now been deferred until further orders from the Health Ministry. However, there is still no clarity regarding the future of the NExT examination, which was announced back in the year 2019.
