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The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking extension of the time schedule and additional Mop-up round for filling up seats that remained vacant in Nursing courses.

A vacation bench while relying on the Notification issued by the Indian Nursing Council, which stated that the last date of admission for all nursing programmes for the year 2021-2022 was 31st of March, 2022, said,

"As per the settled position of law, the time schedule for admission in the educational institutions has to be adhered to. As such, the High Court has rightly refused to entertain the petitions and grant any relief of further Mop-up round to fill up the seats, which have remained vacant."

St. Stephens College of Nursing, who had filed the instant Special Leave Petition had further argued that in the case of two other Government institutions, the time limit was extended to the 15th of May, 2022.

To this, a bench of Justice MR Shah and Justice Aniruddha Bose replied that such a submission was neither here nor there.

"There cannot be any negative discrimination. With respect to all other institutions, the time limit of 31st March 2022 has been adhered to. Even the date of 15th May 2022 has already gone. The process of admissions in the educational institutions cannot be endless. It must come to an end at a particular point in time. If there is any extension and/or deviation from the time schedule, that will ultimately affect the education...", further remarked the vacation bench while dismissing the SLP.

Case Title: ST. STEPHENS HOSPITAL COLLEGE OF NURSING vs. UNION OF INDIA & ORS.