New
Delhi:
The Supreme Court today refused to direct the medical universities to cancel or
postpone the final year Post Graduate exams on the ground that the
examinee-doctors have been engaged in COVID-19 duty.
A
vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and MR Shah said it cannot pass any
general order to all the universities to not conduct or postpone the final year
post graduate medical examination.
The
Supreme court noted that the National Medical Council (NMC) has already issued
an advisory in April asking the universities in the country to take the
COVID-19 situation into consideration while announcing the dates for final year
examination.
We
have interfered where it was possible like postponing by one month the INI CET
examination conducted by AIIMS, New Delhi, where we have found that there was
no justification in fixing the date for the examination without giving
appropriate time to students to prepare, the bench said.
It
rejected the submission of senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for 29
doctors, who have filed the writ petition that NMC be directed to issue
directions to all the universities to give reasonable time to students for
preparing for the examination.
We
don't know what could be the reasonable time for preparing for the examination.
How can the court decide the reasonable time? Everyone may have their
reasonable time. Let the university decide on the basis of the advisory of NMC
as per the pandemic situation prevailing in their area, the bench said.
The
top court said, In a vast country like India, the pandemic situation cannot be
the same. In April-May the situation in Delhi was very bad but now it is hardly
200 cases per day. In Karnataka, however, the situation is not that good even
now. Therefore, we cannot pass any general order without hearing the universities
.
Advocate
Gaurav Sharma, appearing for NMC said that not all doctors were engaged in
COVID duty and the council had issued an advisory in April to all the
universities to hold the examination after taking into consideration the
COVID-19 situation in their respective areas.
Mr
Hegde said that since the doctors were engaged in COVID-19 duty, they were not
able to prepare for the examination, which will enable them to become senior
resident doctors.
At
the outset, the bench clarified that it is not allowing the doctors to be
promoted without appearing for the examination.
_____________