NEW DELHI: The Centre's response to the Supreme Court that there won't be any changes in the pattern of the NEET Super Speciality examination has brought relief to all those young doctors pursuing higher specialisation courses.
"Wrong pattern was implemented at the 11th hour, just ten months before the exam. They have been working in the departments where they wanted to pursue super speciality and had acquired theoretical as well as practical knowledge. The pattern was biased against some post graduate branches. It was closing doors for many doctors to succeed in medical career," said Dr Prateek Rastogi.
The top court was hearing a batch of pleas of 41 post-graduate doctors and others who had challenged the last-minute changes made to the syllabus after the notification was issued on July 23 for the test to be held on November 13 and 14.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Vikram Nath, and BV Nagarathna recorded the submission of Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati and disposed of the pleas of students who have challenged the Centre’s decision to implement changes in the examination pattern of NEET-Super Speciality from this year.
"People have been preparing for months. A sudden change was bound to create problems. So this decision is a huge relief to all the doctors who have been preparing for years now," said a petitioner. The government indicated that it may defer the examination for the academic year 2021-22 by a couple of months as they have to start the process all over again.
Bhati said, in the interest of the students who prepared in accordance to the old scheme, the government in consultation with the two expert bodies National Medical Commission and National Board of Examination has decided that this revised scheme will be implemented from 2022.