The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-MDS examination is scheduled to be held on March 18, 2024. The matter will now be tentatively heard on February 21, 2024.
NEET MDS 2024 Postponement: The Supreme Court of India, the apex court, has recently issued a notice in response to a writ petition calling for the postponement of the NEET MDS 2024 examination and an extension of the internship cut-off date. Several aspirants are demanding the postponement of the NEET MDS examination with hashtags such as #PostponeNEETMDS2024toJULY and #POSTPONENEETMDS2024. The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences(NBEMS), New Delhi has scheduled the NEET MDS examination on March 18, while the cut-off date for the purpose of eligibility to appear in the examination will be March 31, 2024.
The bench, consisting of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, was informed that the decision to hold the NEET MDS on the specified date was manifestly arbitrary. And, the decision was made without factual ascertainment of the internship completion dates despite the specific direction of the Hon’ble High Court of Telangana in 2023.
As per Livelaw report, in 2023, the Telangana High Court(HC) in a writ seeking rescheduling of the NEET MDS 2023 examination disposed of the matter noting, “Before parting with the case we also make it clear from the next academic year the respondent shall take steps to see that all the candidates who have completed MBBS/BDS course across the country a uniform cut off date be fixed and enough care is taken to ensure that sufficient time is granted to all the students to prepare for NEET.”
NEET PG VS NEET MDS Exam Date
Presently, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-MDS examination is scheduled to be held on March 18, 2024. Several MDS aspirants argued that the decision to postpone the NEET PG 2024 examination from March 3 to July 7 was discriminatory when compared to the NEET MDS exam. Initially scheduled for February 9, the NEET MDS exam was later rescheduled to March 18, 2024, according to a notice dated January 20. This represents a mere extension of 38 calendar days from the originally planned date. The cut-off date for the purpose of eligibility to appear in the NEET-PG 2024 shall be August 15.
Aspirants claim that several students are set to finish their internships in July or August, making them ineligible for the NEET MDS if the exam is held in March. If the National Board of Examinations extends the internship completion date to August, it could render many candidates eligible for the March examination. However, for those who have already completed their internships by March, there arises a concern about the period between March and August.
NEET MDS 2024 Application Last Date
As per Livelaw’s report, Senior Advocate Mr Gonsalves appearing for the petitioners contended that many interns could not register for the competitive examination as their date of completion of internship is beyond March 31, 2024. To remind our readers, the last date for submission of the online NEET MDS 2024 application form is February 19. The matter will now be tentatively heard on February 21, 2024.
In its written submission, petitioners highlighted that in 2023, the deadline for completing internships for NEET MDS was officially extended until June 30, 2023.“It is evident that counselling has always commenced after the internship cut-off date. In 2023 too internship cut-off date was 30.6.2023 for NEET MDS and tentative common counselling for NEET PG and NEET MDS was issued only in August 2023. The internship cut-off for NEET PG 2023 was August 11 2023. Hence, after ascertaining the internship completion dates for 2024 by the National Medical Commission, the cut-off date was fixed as 15th August 2024 and the NEET PG-24 entrance date as 7th July 2024,” Livelaw reported. Taking cognizance of the same, the bench agreed to issue notice, the report further reads.