The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) matter has been deferred to next Thursday, July 18, by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud. This happened before the hearing slated for today, July 11, barely began.

First it was deferred by the CJI, then the Solicitor General (SG) cited personal reasons and it was deferred further, finally to Thursday, July 18.

With such an urgent matter being deferred, as the Supreme Court was going to hear a batch of over 30 petitions, the future of over 24 lakh candidates who appeared for the exam hangs by a thread.

Pointing to how this could have an adverse effect on students, Dr Dhruv Chauhan took to social media platform X to share how the future of candidates is stuck between the Supreme Court hearings and the test conducting body, National Testing Agency (NTA).

"This is a sorry condition for the education and healthcare of country which is on repeat from last few years," posted the National Council Coordinator of Indian Medical Association- Junior Doctors Network (IMA-JDN).

Several candidates are quoting the famour Hindi film dialogue "Tarikh pe Tarikh" ("Date upon date") dialogue, from Sunny Deol's movie Damini.

Others are calling it "shameful", "substandard approach" to a matter that concerns so many medical students.