Supreme Court refuses to cancel or postpone medical PG final examinations

Medical Exam 2021
Medical Exam 2021

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to direct medical universities to cancel or postpone the final year examinations of masters on the ground that the examinee-doctor is engaged in the duty of Kovid-19. A vacation bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice MR Shah said that it cannot order all universities not to conduct or postpone the final year medical examination of Masters (PG).

The top court said that the National Medical Council (NMC) has already issued an advisory in April asking universities in the country to take into account the COVID-19 situation while announcing the date of final year examinations. We have intervened where it is possible such as postponement of INI CET examination to be conducted by AIIMS, New Delhi by one month,” the bench said. In this case we found that there is no justification to fix the date for the examination without giving proper time to the students for preparation.

The bench rejected the submission of senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for 29 doctors. These doctors filed a writ petition requesting that the NMC be directed to all the universities to give proper time to the students to prepare for the examination.

We do not know what can be the proper time to prepare for the examination,” the bench said. How can the court decide the appropriate time? Everyone has their own right time. The universities should take a decision on the basis of the pandemic situation in their area in consultation with the NMC.

The court said, “The situation of epidemic in a vast country like India cannot be the same. The situation in Delhi was very bad in April-May but now barely 200 cases are coming every day. In Karnataka, however, the situation is still not very good. So we cannot pass any order without hearing the side of the universities.

Advocate Gaurav Sharma, appearing for the National Medical Council, said that not all doctors have COVID-19 duty and the council issued an advisory in April to all universities after taking into account the situation of Kovid-19 in their respective areas. Was told to take the exam.

Hegde said that since the doctors were engaged in COVID-19 duty, they could not prepare for the examination. With this exam he will become Senior Resident Doctor. At the beginning of the hearing, the bench made it clear that it was not allowing the doctors to be promoted without giving examinations.