Supreme Court: The bench of Indira Banerjee and MR Shah, JJ has directed AIIMS to postpone the Institute of National Importance Combined Admission Test (INI CET) examination by at least a month, after doctors with an MBBS degree, aspiring for admission to the Post Graduate courses for the July 2021 session in the units of AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences), PGIMER Chandigarh, JIPMER Puducherry and NIMHANS Bengaluru filed a petition calling AIIMS’ decision to conduct INI CET 2021 on 16th June, 2021, hasty.
It was argued,
“… the hasty decision taken by AIIMS to conduct INI CET 2021 on 16th June, 2021 has seriously prejudiced innumerable aspirants for admission to Post Graduate courses of the institutions of national importance, who are serving in Covid hospitals in various parts of the country. Many of them have been rendering services at Covid Centres located far away from the examination centres for which they have opted.”
The INI CET is being conducted to fill up 850 MD and MS seats in 6 units of AIIMS, PGIMER Chandigarh, JIPMER Puducherry and NIMHANS Bengalure. As per submissions before the Court, about 80,000 doctors with the MBBS degree are expected to take the INI CET. Post Graduate courses of medical colleges, other than those mentioned above are through the NEET-PG, which has been postponed beyond 31st August, 2021.
In such circumstances, it was argued, that,
“It would be extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible for many candidates for the INI CET to reach their examination centres from their places of duty. Many of the doctors are exposed to and are running the risk of contracting Covid 19 and they may have to isolate and/or quarantine themselves. Even otherwise holding the INICET on 16th June, 2021 will result in spread of the virus and increase in Covid 19 cases.”
Hence, considering the current scenario and the prayers by the doctors, the Court was of the opinion that the fixing of the INI CET on 16.06.2021 is arbitrary and discriminatory, more so since other important examinations including Joint Entrance Examinations, Board Examinations etc. have been postponed.
The Court, hence, directed that the INI CET be postponed by at least a month from 16th June, 2021.
[Poulami Mondal v. AIIMS, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 424, order dated 11.06.2021]
For Petitioner(s): Mr. Sanjay R. Hegde, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Arvind P Datar, Sr. Adv.
Ms. Sonia Mathur, Sr. Adv.
Ms. Pallavi Pratap, AOR
M/S. Dharmaprabhas Law Associates, AOR
Dr. Charu Mathur, AOR
Mr. Chandrashekhar A. Chakalabbi, Adv.
Mr. Awanish Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Shiv Kumar Pandey, adv.
Mr. Anshul Rai, Adv.
Mr. Shikha Bharadwaj, Adv.
Mr. Abhinav Garg, Adv.
Mr. Sanjay Kumar Dubey, Adv
Ms. Tanvi Dubey, Adv.
Mr. Puneet Pathak, Adv.
For Respondent(s): Mr. Dushyant Parashar, AOR
