New Delhi: The Supreme Court has denied a petition to delay the NEET-PG 2024 examination, scheduled for this Sunday, despite concerns over exam center allocations and the normalization of marks between batches. The decision was announced on Monday by a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, who emphasized the courts limitations in reforming educational policies, stating, We cannot devise a new education policy, and this is not a perfect world.Concerns over exam fairnessThe petitioners argued that the exams fairness could be compromised due to differing levels of difficulty between question papers for separate batches. They demanded transparency regarding the normalization formula to ensure fair scoring across all candidates. Additionally, there were complaints about the inconvenient allocation of exam centers, which were to be announced only two days prior to the exam, making it difficult for some candidates to reach their assigned locations.Impact on candidatesChief Justice Chandrachud pointed out the broader implications of postponing the exam, stating that such a decision could negatively impact two lakh students and four lakh parents. He questioned the rationale behind jeopardizing the futures of such a large number of candidates based on the concerns of a few petitioners. We cannot put the careers of so many candidates at risk just because of these petitioners, he remarked.Courts decisionSenior advocate Sanjay Hegde, representing the petitioners, highlighted the logistical challenges candidates would face, including the need to sit for one exam in the morning and another in the afternoon. Despite these arguments, the bench, which included Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, dismissed the plea, concluding, We are not entertaining.Background of NEET-PG examThe NEET-PG entrance exam for medical courses was originally set for June 23 but was postponed by the Union Health Ministry due to concerns about alleged irregularities in other competitive exams. This recent plea to delay the exam further has now been rejected, and the exam will proceed as scheduled.
