No postponement of NEET, No centres Abroad: Kerala HC dismisses plea

The decision to this effect was taken on the petition filed by general secretary, Kerala Muslim Culture Centre, Qatar, seeking the concerned authorities to conduct National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) by allotting the examination centres abroad including Qatar and other Gulf countries. The petitioner also sought the court to either order deferment in the NEET 2020 considering the prevailing coronavirus outbreak.

Making its verdict, the HC had taken note of the submissions made by the NTA and the Medical Council of India (MCI) earlier.

Medical Dialogues had reported about the same wherein the NTA and the MCI together had informed the Kerala High Court that arranging examination centres for National eligibility cum entrance test (NEET) in abroad is not practical since it is not feasible to conduct NEET online in a single shift for all candidates. The authorities also told the court that allotting exam centres for this upcoming MBBS entrance test, is not possible as it takes meticulous planning and the exam is about to be held next month; which evidently gives them not enough time.

Read Also: Kerala demands NEET Entrance Exam centres in Gulf countries

NEET is scheduled for July 26th and NTA and MCI had informed the court that within this short amount of time allotment of examination centres outside the country is not possible. While giving reasons for their inability to arrange new examination centres in UAE or Gulf countries, they stated that NEET, unlike joint entrance examination (JEE) is not held online and it is an offline examination.

Hence arranging new centres requires sending examination materials including question papers outside the country. Those materials and questions papers have to be transported from the India NEET headquarters to a large number of examination centres and it requires a great deal of planning and strategic advancement, they had submitted. Moreover, they needed extreme security as question papers are highly confidential which is not possible to arrange within this short amount of time.

NTA and MCI also informed the HC that conducting the NEET examination in online mode is also not possible as organizing the test online in a single shift for all candidates is not feasible at all, adds the daily.

The Centre also informed the court that students could be brought back to the State by following the guidelines prescribed for overseas Indians.

Read Also: NTA, MCI Say NO To Foreign NEET Centres, Online Conduction Of NEET 2020 In One Shift

Now, during the recent hearing, the Division Bench consisting of Honourable Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chali dismissed the petition filed by the General Secretary seeking either overseas test centres for the NEET or postponement of the test till the COVID-19 situation improved, reports The Hindu

Detailed Judgement awaited...