The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a petition challenging alleged “last-minute” changes to the examination pattern for the upcoming National Eligibility Cumulative Entrance Test – Super Specialization (NEET-SS) 2021.
The exam is set to take place in November 2021.
The petitioners, who are qualified post-graduate doctors from across the country who want to become super specialists by passing the NEET-SS 2021, claim that the exam dates were announced on July 23 but the new pattern was made public on August 31.
The Supreme Court, which scheduled a hearing on the matter for September 27, also allowed the petitioners to file a brief summary of their written submissions.
The NEET-SS 2021 exams are scheduled for November 13-14, and it is a well-established principle, including in educational matters, that once the calendar is announced, there is no question of changing the plan.
The petition, filed through advocate Javedur Rahman, was notified by the NBE and approved by the NMC, alleging that the changes was “illegal” and carried out without legal authority.
The petitioners were surprised to see that the scheme of the NEET-SS exams in Part 4 had undergone a complete change with only two months until the exam, with no advance notice.
The petitioners who have been working as frontline workers for the past year of covid-19 have also been preparing for Neet 2021, and the sudden changes have been extremely difficult for them.
The petition requires students to write a paper that is entirely comprised of general medicine questions. There will be no questions from any broad categories, which is considered a waste of time for students who have already prepared for the exam.
