Summary
The Delhi High Court is set to hear a plea on July 14 for the postponement of the NEET UG 2022 examination scheduled to be held on July 17
The petitioners have cited various reasons behind their request for deferral: it’s proximity with other exams such as CUET, JEE, high school board exams, NEET UG 2021. They have also highlighted the flood and rainfall situation in the country as one of the reasons
The Delhi High Court will hear a plea on Thursday that has been filed by several applicants for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2022. The plea asks for a postponement of the examination dataset by the National Testing Agency (NTA), the body conducting the tests. The petition has been filed by advocate Mamata Sharma, who is representing fifteen NEET UG aspirants belonging to different states. It was put forth before a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad at Delhi High Court on Wednesday and the court listed it for hearing today. The petitioners seek to postpone the stipulated date of July 17 and reschedule it after four to six weeks.
It seeks a response from officials on several grounds cited by the petitioners towards the postponement of the exam, such as its clash with other major competitive exams such as the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), as well as high school board exams for some of the candidates. It also emphasised that the counselling process for NEET UG 2021 was severely delayed and concluded only two months prior to the date set for the 2022 exam. The petitioners went on to mention that this narrow and strained schedule leaves them with very little time to prepare for the exam, which is the single qualifying exam for aspiring medical students seeking admission into undergraduate programmes across government colleges in India. The students have also highlighted the torrential flood and heavy rainfall situation across the country which makes it difficult for applicants to travel long distances to appear at the examination centres.
Additionally, they have called out the “unorganised” nature of the exam, and how that has caused “immense mental trauma and harassment resulting in 16 reported suicides of young students leaving their families in a state of despair.”
The aspirants have also claimed “that NEET- UG is one of the most challenging examinations and if it is conducted as per the present schedule, it will cause irreparable loss of one year of education and substantive injustice to lakhs of students.”
“In spite of being aware of the genuine and legitimate grievances of the petitioners, respondents have failed to make a timely decision in respect of rescheduling NEET- UG 2022 and created a state of confusion among students by not releasing the admit card of the students till 11th of July 2022,” the petition stated.
“Aspirant students were under a legitimate belief that their concerns raised through various representations will be considered but to much shock and surprise, respondents maintaining their ignorant attitude have decided to conduct the NEET-UG 2022 examination at the scheduled date of 17.07.2022,” it added.
Since the announcement of the examination in June, thousands of medical aspirants have been appealing to the NTA and Ministry of Education for a 40-day deferment of the exam. They have also sought to start campaigns on social media expressing their grievances. However, the NTA released the admit card for the stipulated date of July 17 last Tuesday, dismissing the appeals and memorandums submitted by the aspirants.
Last updated on 14 Jul 2022
