Courts should defer to the wisdom of administrators in academic institutions and regulatory authorities in matters concerning academic policies, including admission criteria, unless shown to be plainly arbitrary or discriminatory.

JUDGMENT

Dr. Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, J. - 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 Bulletin ¹[Information Bulletin] providing the examination schedule and eligibility criteria. Clause 4.4 of the Information Bulletin stipulates amongst the eligibility criteria that the internship 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.

3. On 8 February 2022, this Court, while considering a petition ²[Shivam Satyarthee v Union of India, Writ Petition (C) No 68 of 2022] under Article 32 of the Constitution, permitted the petitioners, who were seeking a postponement of the internship deadline, to submit a representation before the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This Court observed:

The issue which has been raised by the petitioners requires a determination of facts bearing on the position in different parts of the country. Prescribing a cutoff date pertains to the policy domain. The ends of justice would be met by permitting the petitioners to submit a representation to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare setting out the nature of the hardship which has been faced by the petitioners and similarly placed candidates. The representation shall be considered expeditiously, within a period of one week of the date of its submission, by the competent authority. Since the Court is leaving it open to the petitioners to move the MoHFW with a representation, no opinion has been expressed by this Court on the merits of the grievance at the present stage.

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. 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.

7. Having due regard to the above submission, this Court had on 30 March 2022 requested the Solici