’This is not a perfect world’: Top quotes of Supreme Court during NEET-PG 2024 exam postponement hearing

NEET PG Hearing 2024: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to postpone the NEET-PG examination, scheduled for August 11. The Supreme Court was hearing a postponement plea by around 50 candidates who claimed they had been allotted test centres that were inconvenient for them to reach.  

A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra refused to entertain the petition seeking postponement of the NEET-PG 2024 examination.

NEET PG Hearing 2024: What the Supreme Court said

-"So many problems in the country, now to reschedule the PG Exam," CJI Chandrachud said as soon as the matter was taken. "It was rescheduled once," Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for the petitioners, submitted, referring to the initial postponement of the exam from June 22.

-"How can we postpone such an exam? Mr Sanjay Hegde, nowadays people just come asking to postpone the exam," Bar and Bench quoted CJI Chandrachud.

-"We cannot devise a new education policy, and this is not a perfect world", Justice Chandrachud added.

-When the bench expressed disinclination, Hegde said, “It seeks rescheduling because there is one exam in morning and one in afternoon and then it will be normalised.”

-The SC bench pointed out that out of 2 lakh students who will be writing the examination, only 50 had sought a postponement.

-"As a matter of principle, we will not reschedule," said Justice Pardiwala while seeking statistics on the scheduled NEET-PG 2024 examination.

-"There are 2 lakh students and 4 lakh parents who will weep over the weekend. We cannot put the careers of so many candidates at risk just because of these petitioners," said Justice Pardiwala.

-"We do not know who is behind these petitions (not your client)," Bar and Bench quoted Justice Pardiwala.

-To this, Hegde argued that the demand was backed by several students.

-"At the behest of 50 students, we can't put the career of 2 lakh students at jeopardy. Let there be certainty," said Justice Chandrachud. He said, “Yes, normalisation may not always be the correct answer," and added that we should look at practical solutions in a complex and diverse society.

NEET PG Hearing 2024: Petition for postponement

The NEET PG 2024 exam postponement petition was filed, raising two primary concerns.

First, many NEET-PG 2024 candidates have been allotted test centres which are inconvenient for them to reach.

Second, the exam is slated to be held in two batches, and candidates are unaware of the normalisation formula intended to ensure fairness across different question sets to eliminate the possibility of any arbitrariness.