The matter regarding the cancellation of further rounds of the Institute of National Importance-Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET) 2022 counselling was being heard in the Supreme Court today, October 14. It may be recalled that students who awaited the counselling were left in a lurch after AIIMS Delhi announced the sudden cancellation (on September 19) and went on to challenge the move in the apex court on September 26.
During the hearing today, the Supreme Court directed the counsel for petitioners to serve notice to the respondents via email. The court additionally directed that AIIMS Delhi would be served a notice "through its Director physically", as mentioned in a tweet by LiveLaw.in.
Dr Sarthak Vats, a concerned PG aspirant, said, "AIIMS neither submitted any report to the Court nor sent a counsel. So, the matter could not be taken up further." He explained that the counsel for the petitioners asked for an ex-party hearing, but the court wanted to hear out AIIMS before giving the verdict.
"So, a final chance has been granted to the respondents to appear before the court at the next hearing, which is scheduled for October 31," he informed. The student also stated that their counsel would try to speed up the hearing and list it out for next week, if possible.
It may be noted that about two weeks ago, the Supreme Court issued a notice to AIIMS Delhi and other respondents regarding the matter. Students have been demanding that the Open Round of Counselling be conducted.
In an earlier interview with EdexLive, one of the petitioners, Dr Devesh Dubey, had said that the counselling should be resumed to admit students as more than 500 seats were lying vacant in eminent institutes such as AIIMS. "This increases the workload and pressure on the current residents and is unfair to those who have written the exam as well," he had stated.
Dr Sarthak had informed EdexLive that FAIMA (Federation of All India Medical Association) is also one of the petitioners in the SC plea that they filed. Some members of FAIMA had also met the new Director of AIIMS Delhi, Dr M Srinivas, in this regard in September.
