The Madras High Court on Thursday disposed of a petition that sought an extension of the one-year internship that medical graduates have to undergo, before applying for NEET-PG. The petitioner GA Vishwajeet was seeking an extension of the one-year Compulsory Rotatory Residential Internship (CRRI) date so that he could be eligible to write the NEET-PG entrance exam.
Earlier the cut-off date was June 30 and the government had extended it keeping the pandemic in mind. At present, the cut-off date has been set to September 30. Only those who finish their mandatory internship on or before this date are eligible to write NEET-PG. The plea was heard by a single judge bench of Justice N Anand Venkatesh.
The petitioner, who is a NEET-PG aspirant himself said that he will be finishing his mandatory internship only on October 4 owing to the pandemic. "The cut-off dates are not fixed based on individual claims made and the respondents [government authorities] will have to take into consideration a wide range of options and make a decision," Justice Venkatesh said in the judgment. "The respondents had in fact taken into consideration the pandemic situation and had extended the time for the completion of the internship from 30.06.2021 up to 30.09.2021," he added.
In his judgment, Justice Venkatesh noted that "sympathy by itself cannot be a ground for issuing any positive directions, more particularly, when it comes to education." However, he added that the "court is sympathetic to the passionate claim that has been made by the petitioner seeking for the extension of the cutoff date for completion of the internship."
In his petition, Vishwajeet said that he had previously made a representation to the relevant authorities seeking the same. The government, on the other hand, told the Madras High Court that there is no scope for extension of the cut-off date beyond the set date.
The court said that it cannot interfere in every decision that is taken on the Administrative side. It added that the issue is a personal grievance of the petitioner. "...if such a claim is entertained, it will open flood gates and every student who was not able to complete the internship on or before 30.09.2021, will approach this Court seeking for a similar direction and it will only end up in chaos," Justice Ventakesh said.
