The Supreme Court of India rapped the central government on Tuesday over the plea challenging last minute changes to syllabus for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Post-Graduate Super Specialty (NEET SS) exam 2021. The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to hold meetings with the concerned authorities and submit a response on October 4.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna heard the matter today and questioned the government for tweaking the exam pattern at the last minute. It said: “What is the NMC (National Medical Commission) doing? We're dealing with lives of doctors. You issue notice and then change the pattern?”
“Students start preparing for super speciality courses months & months in advance. Why is the need to change the same last minutes before the exam? Why can you not proceed with the changes from the following year?” it added.
"Don't treat these young doctors as footballs in the game of power...We can't put these doctors at the mercy of insensitive bureaucrats...Put your house in order...Just because somebody has the power, you can't yield the power in any manner," Justice Chandrachud said.
“..This is so important for their career. Now you cannot introduce changes last minute. These young doctors might be put at ruse due to last minute changes…Please deal with young doctors with sensitivity,” Justice Chandrachud added.
The plea was filed in the top court by 41 postgraduate doctors challenging the abrupt changes made at the last minute. In 2018, NEET SS exam had 40 per cent of the questions from general medicine and 60 per cent from super speciality. This year, in a first, all the questions are to be from general medicine.
The plea stated that dates of NEET SS 2021 examination were announced on July 23, 2021, and the change in the exam pattern announced over a month later on August 31 when only two months remained before the NEET-SS 2021 exams, to be held on the 13th and 14th of November 2021”.
According to the plea submitted by advocate Javedur Rahman on behalf of 41 doctors, aspirants have been preparing for the older pattern for the past three years.
