Supreme Court grants NMC permission to extend NEET PG 2022 admission schedule

The Supreme Court on Friday, October 21 allowed the National Medical Commission (NMC) to extend the time schedule for the completion of the admission schedule for postgraduate medical courses for the academic year 2022-23.

The National Medical Commission sought the modification of the schedule through an appeal that said the COVID-19 lockdown and consequent restrictions, the counselling process for 2020-21 and 2021-22 during the pandemic did not meet the time schedules and therefore, the commencement of the academic schedule was delayed, according to a tweet by LiveLaw. 

As things stand right now, the Medical Counselling Committee has released the final results of Round 2 of the counselling. The mop-up round is expected to begin soon, with the registrations for the same scheduled for October 31. This week, the NMC also revised the cut-offs across categories by 25%, given the fact that a large number of seats were left vacant. 

As per the original schedule of the NMC, which began the NEET PG 2022 counselling after almost a three-month delay after the release of results in June this year, students who will be allotted seats in the mop-up round were expected to report to their respective colleges by November 14. The results of the mop-up counselling were to be declared on November 9. Any changes in the dates as per the verdict by the Supreme Court bench today that allowed the NMC to extend the counselling schedule will be updated on EdexLive. 

It is interesting to note that on October 18, the Supreme Court had set aside a verdict by the Calcutta High Court allowing the West Bengal University of Health Services to grant admission to students in PG courses for the academic year 2019-20. It was only this week that the NMC's challenge to this decision by the High Court was overturned by the Supreme Court, which said that the admission schedule for PG medical courses should be "adhered to strictly," as per a report by LiveLaw.

Aspirants this year had been agitating for the NEET PG exam, which was conducted in May, to be postponed. They had cited lack of preparedness due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for their request. The NMC had told the Supreme Court that a delay in the start of the PG academic year would impact patient care in the country. The Supreme Court had refused to entertain the students' request.