Plea In Supreme Court Seeks Postponement of INICET Examination, 2021
In view of the assurance given by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Office while postponing NEET PG Exam 2021 by four months, a plea has been filed in the Supreme Court to postpone the INICET Examination, 2021 which is scheduled to be conducted by All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) on 16th June, 2021.
It has been argued that in the prevailing circumstances due to COVID-19, the conducting of this examination would result in building up pressure on the graduate doctors from across India to sit for the examination on 16th June, 2021, when under the present circumstances the Board examinations (Central Board of Secondary Education 10th and 12th Grade) and other professional examinations have been either cancelled or postponed.
“Conducting such an examination at this stage will be indirect contravention to their fundamental right under Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India. Article 14 of the Constitution of India is set to be violated because there is violation to the extent that the differentiation in terms of postponing one PG Examination for doctors is undertaken however, the same doctors are now forced to take the INI-CET examination, which is in itself unreasonable or arbitrary and does not rest on any rational basis.”, the plea states.
26 doctors (MBBS graduate) who had opted to sit for the Post Graduate Entrance Test-INICET for higher studies in the field of medicine/post graduate studies have preferred the present plea which has been filed through Advocate Pallavi Pratap. The plea challenges the preponement of the INICET Examination, 2021 which is scheduled to be conducted by All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) on 16th June, 2021.
The petitioners have averred that the preponement of the exam is in utter disregard to the assurance with respect to postponing PG Examinations, given by the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Office while postponing the NEET- PG Examination, 2021 by four months.
Relying on the assurances given by the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Office, the petitioners have averred that the said communication said that students would be given atleast one month’s time in order to prepare for the said examination and that such medical personnels completing 100 days of COVID duty would be given Prime Minister’s COVID National Service Samman and also priority in government recruitment.
The petitioners have further submitted that the notification dated May 27, 2021 and the conduct of examination on June 16th 2021 is not in public interest in view of the present condition of the country and non-availability of doctors, beds in the hospitals coupled with the fact that there is a dearth of COVID-19 vaccination, many doctors have taken a job or duty in a State which is not their own, and also many of them were preparing for their PG examinations, however, when the assurance from the Prime Minister’s Office came, a lot of them took jobs/duties other than their own States and became frontline workers.
“With the positivity rate in India being 20+ % and in some places as high as 50%, more than 80,000 doctors will be appearing for INI-CET. A conservative assumption that about 10% are infected, this will itself show the difficulty in arranging for beds and life support for nearly 8,000 doctors who will be taking this examination.” an excerpt from the plea.
The plea also avers that only 19 days prior notice is given. Also centres for examination are in different states or far from the aspirants’ place of working which may require travelling and thereby facing travel restrictions.
The petitioners have also submitted that many of these doctors are not fully vaccinated and a lot of them have not received their 1st dose.
“if the said examination is conducted, many doctors will resign in order to prepare for the NEET PG examination which is to be conducted in August, 2021 since they might distrust the Government by not keeping their end of bargain with respect to conducting the examination after August, 31, 2021 and providing one month’s prior notice.”, the plea states.
Therefore the plea seeks postponement of INICET Examination, 2021 which is scheduled to be conducted by All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) on 16th June, 2021 which is in utter disregard of the assurances given by the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Office.
Case Title: Dr. Poulami Mondal & Ors. v. All India Institute of Medical Sciences Through its Director & Ors.