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Dr Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, J

1. The petition under Article 32 of the Constitution has been instituted by doctors who are aspirants of NEET- PG 2022. They have challenged the deadline set for the completion of internship for appearing for NEET-PG 2022. The facts which give rise to the present petition are set out below.

2. On 15 January 2022, the first respondent released the NEET-PG 2022-23 Information Bulletin1 providing the examination schedule and eligibility criteria. Clause 4.4 of the Information Bulletin stipulates amongst the eligibility criteria that the internship 1 “Information Bulletin” completion certificate has to be submitted at the time of counselling / admission to the allotted medical college and that the internship should have been completed by 31 May 2022.

4. After considering the representations which were received, the National Board of Examination issued a notice on 16 February 2022 extending the cut-off date for completion of internship to 31 July 2022 to fulfill the eligibility criteria for the NEET-PG examination. The petitioners are aggrieved by the revised cut-off date and have invoked the jurisdiction of this Court under Article 32 of the Constitution.

5. The grievance of the petitioners is that the extension of the cut-off from 31 May to 31 July 2022 would still leave out students from certain States who are unable to complete their internships by the cut-off date. It has been submitted that on 3 May 2021, the Union Government in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had authorized the States/UTs to deploy medical interns in Covid management duties. 2 Shivam Satyarthee v Union of India, Writ Petition (C) No 68 of 2022 Besides this, it was envisaged that the services of final year MBBS students may be utilized for providing services such as tele-consultation and monitoring of mild Covid cases.

6. Mr Gopal Sankaranarayanan, senior counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners, submitted that in certain States, the internships of medical students commenced later as a result of the deployment of final year medical students on Covid duties. For instance, it has been stated that in Kerala, the internships commenced in August 2021, in Bihar in October 2021, in Jharkhand in August 2021, in Uttar Pradesh in September 2021 and in Jammu and Kashmir in November 2021. The submission is that the commencement of the internships was delayed in these States due to the Covid situation and as a consequence, these students would not be able to fulfill the cut-off date of 31 July 2022. Hence, it has been urged that the cut-off date should be extended further to accommodate these students for the NEET-PG 2022. In the alternative, it has been urged that the period spent on Covid duties should be allowed to be counted towards the internship requirements.

8. Responding to the alternative submission of Mr Gopal Sankarnarayanan that the period which has been spent on Covid duties should be treated towards the internship requirements, the Additional Solicitor General submitted that Covid duties do not cover all specialties and, hence, the acceptance of this request would result in tinkering with the educational curriculum.

9. While we understand that the present cut-off date for the completion of the internship would put certain students at a disadvantage, we are conscious that it is the domain of the executive and regulatory authorities to formulate appropriate eligibility standards for admission. In Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur & Ors. v. Soutrik Sarangi3, a three-judge Bench of this Court held that courts should be circumspect in exercising their powers of judicial review in matters concerning academic policies, including admission criteria. In that case, this Court refused to interfere with the eligibility criteria for appearing in JEE (Advanced) 2021 which prevented a candidate who had secured a seat in one of the IITs from competing in a subsequent examination. This Court relied on All India Council for Technical Education v. Surinder Kumar Dhawan4, where it was observed that judicial interference motivated by concerns of mitigating the hardship faced by students may result in unintended consequences adversely affecting the education system. This Court held thus: