The ministry of health and family welfare has asked the National Board of examinations to defer the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for post-graduate students by six to eight weeks.

The announcement has been made by the ministry as the exams that were scheduled on March 12 clash with the NEET PG counseling.

It may be recalled that six MBBS graduates had filed a plea in the Supreme Court on January 25 seeking postponement of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) scheduled on March 12 for admissions in postgraduate medical courses. They had said that many MBBS students would be unable to take up the exam as they would not have completed their mandatory internship period.

Dr B Srinivas, Assistant Director General (Medical Education) and Member Secretary of the Medical Counselling Committee told Dr M Bajpai, executive director of NBE in an official communication that several representations were being made by medical doctors requesting to postpone the NEET-PG 2022 examination as it was clashing with the NEET PG 2021 counseling.

“Keeping the above facts in view, the HFM (ministry of health and family welfare) has taken the decision to postpone NEET PG 2022 by 6-8 weeks or suitably. Hence, the decision made by the health ministry may be complied with,” the communication sent on February 3 stated.

Also read: Competitive exams after class XII: Medical Entrance Exam/NEET