Plea in SC seeks suspension of ongoing NEET-PG counselling

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): An application has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking suspension of the ongoing NEET-PG counselling for admissions. The application has been filed in the pending petition challenging the lack of transparency in the conduct of the NEET-PG 2024 examination. The application said that despite clear directions given by the apex court for disposal of the matter on November 19, an attempt is being made by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to carry out counselling in a hurried manner prior to the date fixed, to defeat the rights of the petitioner candidates.

“Since this Hon’ble Court has already directed the matter to be listed on 19.11.2024, the Petitioners pray that the MCC may be directed to defer the counselling for NEET PG 2024 until the present petition is heard, lest the subject matter become infructuous and fait accompli on the petitioners,” it added. The MCC released the counselling schedule 2024 on November 1, where the deadline for choice-filling for Round 1 is fixed for November 17 and seat allotment is scheduled to take place on November 18 and 19. In their plea filed before the apex court, NEET-PG aspirants claimed that the introduction of two shifts, normalisation method, and change in the tie-breaker criterion just three days before the examination affected the students adversely.

The petitioners contended that the NEET-PG information bulletin could be amended at the whims and fancy of the authorities and no rules or regulations existed governing the conduct of examinations. It challenged the National Board Of Examinations’ (NBE) practice of not disclosing question papers, answer keys, or response sheets of candidates for the exam this year. The plea said that there was a clear lack of transparency in the conduct of the examination since none of the documents allowed students to check their performance, adding that neither the question paper, nor the response sheet filled in by candidates, or an answer key was supplied to the students, and merely a scorecard had been provided.

The petition, filed by advocate Parul Shukla, highlighted that unlike previous years where the candidate used to receive their total score along with the number of correctly attempted questions and the number of incorrectly attempted questions, the results released on August 23 this year did not provide the total score of the candidate. "The method/manner in which examination under the NEET PG 2024 is conducted by the respondents (authorities) is manifestly arbitrary and against the principles of transparency and fairness in state action as enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution of India," it added. The plea said that NEET-PG had never been held in two shifts before and had always remained a single-shift and single-day examination to ensure a uniform examination standard and fairness of the national exam.

It highlighted a "serious patent defect in the conduct of the examination", requiring redressal in order to achieve a clean, transparent and effective system of examination which gives the best candidates. "The NEET-PG is a multidisciplinary exam where one’s rank also determines their ability to opt for the course and field of their choice. Any slight variation in marks would bar several candidates from specialising in their field of interest," it added.