The Supreme Court on Tuesday conveyed its displeasure over “last-minute changes” made to the pattern of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test — Super Specialty (NEET-SS), 2021, and said that it prima facie appears that the attempt appeared to be intended only to fill vacant post graduate Medical seats.
“I read the affidavit…that’s what it prima facie appears,” Justice DY Chandrachud, heading a three-judge bench, told senior advocate Maninder Singh, who appeared for the National Board of Examinations (NBE), when he said that “we will try to prove that all this hasn’t been done only to fill vacancies”.
The court said that the plan to rush through with the changes this year itself gives a “very strong impression that medical education has become a business, and even medical regulation has become a business”.
That’s the tragedy of medical education in this country,” Justice Chandrachud said. He asked the government to “please put your house in order”, failing which “our hands in law are very lengthy”.
Stating that the changes could have been introduced from next year to give candidates enough time, the court questioned the ‘haste” to introduce them from this year itself. “Heavens would not have fallen if you would’ve introduced the changes from next year,” Justice Chandrachud said.
Hearing the matter on September 27, the court had frowned upon the National Medical Commission (NMC) and NBE for making the changes and asked them to take it up with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to see what can be done.
In response, the government filed an affidavit, standing by the decision, stating that the pattern change is “in the interest of students and medical education”, and is based on a “logical and rational approach that the candidates should be tested on the basis of the curriculum/course/training which these candidates had secured during the period of their postgraduate course”. It will minimise wastage of super-speciality seats, the government stated.
It also proposed to reschedule the exams due to being held in November this year to January 2022 so that the candidates get more time to prepare.
Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said that going back to the old system will derail the entire process. Thousands have already registered and question papers framed, she submitted.
But the bench pointed out that the Super Specialty entrance requires years of preparation.
“It’s not a matter of some months like CLAT. They have to study consistently. We know the vacant seats, but they are torchbearers. We have forgotten them in the entire process”.
