The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a plea by doctors, mostly final-year medical students who served as frontline workers in COVID wards, to extend the deadline for completion of internship beyond July 31. The completion of internship is a prerequisite for taking the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Post Graduate (NEET-PG) 2022.
A Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said any further extension would disrupt the academic schedule.
Academic schedule
“Whenever there is a cut-off, some students are likely to fall on either side of the dividing line. Any extension of the cut-off would result in the disruption of the academic schedule,” the court agreed with the submissions made by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati for the government.
The court also did not agree with an alternative proposal made by the students, represented by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayan, to include their COVID duties in the internship programme. Ms. Bhati argued that COVID duties did not encompass several specialties, and the stint in COVID wards cannot be included in the internship programme.
The Bench said it did not want to micro-manage the medical curriculum.
“Though there will undoubtedly be an element of hardship, it would not be possible at this stage to disrupt the education of a large body of students. Hence in the considered view of the court, it will not be appropriate to interfere,” the court said.
The initial internship deadline for 2022 admissions was May 31. However, the government, on the court’s intervention in February, had extended it to July 31.
Ms. Bhati said the deadline cannot be extended again as the classes were scheduled to start from August. Mr. Sankaranarayan said it was sad to see that these students, who had answered the call of the Prime Minister to fight the COVID battle, have to now lose a year.
