The Bombay High Court dismissed a writ petition seeking extension of the internship cut-off date for NEET-PG 2013. The Court held that setting aside the National Board of Examinations rule prescribing a 31 March 2013 internship completion deadline was not justified.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
WRIT PETITION NO. 5226 OF 2013
Dr.Pooja Kiran Hatti vs
Union of India & Ors.
..Petitioner
..Respondents
Ms.Pooja V. Thorat for the Petitioner. Ms.Neeta V. Masurkar with Mr.Parag Vyas for the Respondent – Union of India.
CORAM : DR.D.Y.CHANDRACHUD, AND S.C. GUPTE, JJ.
16 JULY 2013.
P.C. :
The Petitioner seeks admission to the Post Graduate medical course having completed her MBBS Degree. In September 2012, Rules were notified by the National Board of Examinations for the National Eligibility-cumEntrance Test (NEET) for Post Graduate courses in relation to the 2013 admission session. Rule 3 which prescribed the eligibility criteria stipulated that candidates ought to have completed their internship on or before 31 March 2013. Rule 3.3 provides as follows :
“3.3 Request for appearing in NEET-PG from candidates completing internship after 31st March 2013 or having qualifications that are not recognized shall be summarily rejected. Candidates are further advised not to canvass for the same.
Candidate who are completing their internship after 31st March 2013 or likely to complete after 31 March 2013 need not apply in the NEET-PG exam as they shall be ineligible to participate at any stage of the admission process.”
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2 Admittedly, the Petitioner has not completed the internship before the cut-off date. The Petitioner seeks a direction of the court for setting aside the cut-off date, and directions to the effect that the cut-off date should be extended by a further period of two months so as to render the Petitioner eligible on the basis of her performance in the NEET-PG.
3 Having heard the learned Counsel, we are of the view that no such direction can be granted. There is nothing arbitratory in the National Board of Examinations prescribing as part of the eligibility criteria for the Post Graduate Entrance Examination, that a candidate ought to have completed the internship by 31 March 2013. The Rules were notified in September 2012, the Examination was held in November 2012 and the results were declared in May 2013.The declaration of the results took place later on, but that cannot be a ground to extend the cut-off date for the completion of internship. Besides, other candidates who would have been completing their internship after 31 March 2013 may not have applied in the NEET since they were not eligible. In the circumstances, no case for interference has been made out.
4 The Petition is accordingly dismissed.
2 issues framed by the court
Whether the court should extend the internship cut-off date of 31 March 2013 prescribed for NEET-PG 2013
Whether the petitioner, who completed internship after the cut-off date, should be granted eligibility to participate in the admission process
Dr. Pooja Kiran Hatti
Union of India
Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud
S.C. Gupte
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
