Calcutta High Court on Monday declined to issue an interim stay on the second and third professional examinations for MBBS courses in the state that are scheduled to start from July 14.

Ten medicine students had moved the court, opposing the exams because of the pandemic.

Hearing their petition, Justice Subrata Talukdar described the reason for seeking postponement as “legitimate”.

But since a majority of the students were willing to write the examinations, the judge said the court should not stay the conduct of the examinations.

Justice Talukdar gave the students liberty to apply before the comptroller of examinations by giving proper reasons and request him to give a chance to them to write the exams in the future.

The MBBS course is for five-and-a-half years, during which students write four terminal examinations in four-and-a-half years and do a one-year internship. The second professional exam is held after two-and-a-half years and the third, which has two parts, is held after three-and-a-half years and four-and-a-half years in college.

Moving the petition before the court, senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said that the court had on July 10 issued a stay on the ayurveda examinations because of the pandemic and that the court should issue a similar order in case of the medical professional exams.

Opposing the prayer, Bengal advocate-general Kishore Datta told the court that out of 650 examinees, only 45, including the 10 petitioner students, had expressed unwillingness to sit for the examinations.

The advocate-general assured the court that adequate safety measures had been taken for the students during their examinations.

Datta contended that the professional examinations of the medical students were scheduled on the basis of the examinations for similar courses in other states and the high court should not stay Bengal’s exams.

After hearing both sides, Justice Talukdar declined to issue the stay.