The court held that postponement of scheduled examinations requires manifest arbitrariness to warrant judicial intervention, and mere hardships faced by some students do not suffice to disrupt established academic timelines.

JUDGMENT

Sanjeev Narula, J. (Oral)--As per Section 14 of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-UG ["NEET (UG)"] has to be conducted as a common and uniform test for admission to undergraduate medical courses in all medical institutions, including those governed under any other law in force. The NEET UG 2022 examination for admission to undergraduate medical courses in all medical institutions in India is scheduled for 17th July 2022. Scarcely three days before the exam, some aspirants desire that the said exam be rescheduled after 4-6 weeks.

2. The extraordinary writ jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, 1950 has been invoked seeking the following reliefs:

"I. Directing the respondents to set aside the examination schedule 17.07.2022 of NEET-UG 2022 examination as mentioned in notification dated 06.04.2022 issued by respondent no. 1/national testing agency;

II. Direct the respondents to issue a fresh notification rescheduling date of NEET-UG 2022 examination after considering the grievances raised by the petitioners by way of written representations dated 12.05.2022 and 08.07.2022;

III. Direct the respondents to conduct NEET-UG 2022 phase 2 for the academic session 2022 considering huge distance of examination centre which range between 150 km to 300 km for thousands of students during the current grave situation caused by flood across nation;

IV. Direct the Respondent no. 1 to 4 to set up a grievances/complaint redressal mechanism to decide all the complaints and grievances raised in respect of examination within a time bound manner;

IV. Any other appropriate direction may be issued in the interest of justice."

3. Respondent No. 1 - National Testing Agency ("NTA"), vide Public Notice dated 06th April, 2022 [hereinafter, "Notice"], invited applications for NEET UG 2022 examination for admission into various undergraduate medical courses in institutions across India, and declared the date for NEET UG 2022 examination. Several aspirants (including some of the Petitioners herein) made written representations to the Director General of NTA as well as Hon'ble Prime Minister, Health Minister and Education Minister, addressing several issues qua timelines for NEET UG 2022 examination declared in the Notice and inter alia prayed for postponement of the same for a minimum period of six weeks, stating that date of NEET UG 2022 examination is proximate to/coinciding with other national level entrance examinations (including JEE 2022, CUET 2022, EAMCET 2022) for admission into various undergraduate courses. Several other such representations seeking similar reliefs were also made by other interested parties; however, no action was taken thereon. Aggrieved by the inaction of Respondent-authorities, Petitioners have approached this Court praying for the afore-mentioned reliefs.

CONTENTIONS ADVANCED

ON BEHALF OF PETITIONERS

4. Ms. Mamta Sharma, counsel for Petitioners, has advanced the following submissions:

4.1. Several national level examinations, inter alia, Central University Entrance Test ("CUET") and Joint Entrance Examination ("JEE") have been scheduled closely proximate to/within a gap of one or two days of NEET 2022 examination and the syllabus as well as pattern of all such examinations is completely different. As these examinations are amongst the most challenging and competitive examinations in the country, Petitioners are being gravely prejudiced owing to the concurrent nature in which these examinations are being conducted, and insuffic