The Capital News
New Delhi: June 21: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to defer the counselling and seat allotment process for the NEET-UG 2024 exam, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5, which is scheduled to commence on July 6. The vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti requested NTA’s response on certain fresh pleas and tagged them with pending cases on similar issues, set to be heard on July 8.
During the hearing, counsel for one of the petitioners requested a postponement of the July 6 counselling date, arguing that the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear petitions challenging the NEET-UG exam on July 8. In response, Justice Nath remarked, “Counselling is not open and shut.
It is a process. That process commences on 6th. What is the duration of the first schedule? Is it four days or five days? A week. Afterwards, within that week, applicants have any number of options to amend or modify. Then only it gets in the domain of the convenor. We do not want even this time to be utilised by the candidate.
They will come to know what are the colleges open. It’s not that everything is accepted. We are allowing time not to be lost, either by this side or that side.”
Previously, the Court had also refused to stay the counselling process, orally observing that admissions would be subject to the final outcome of the petitions. If the exams are set aside, the counselling will be invalidated consequentially.
