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Supreme Court today directed the Government to abide by its NEET MDS Counselling dates.

Bench was hearing the Plea that challenged the infinite delay in the counseling process for the NEET MDS 20-21 Exams and held that the Government will treat the affidavit filed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as Court Order and will abide by it. 

A Division Bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice MR Shah, while recording that the Additional Solicitor General has submitted that the Union Government will abide by the statement made by the Ministry, ordered,

"Since the grievance of the petitioners has been met in terms of the affidavit, nothing further survives......We adopt the schedule which has been indicated before the court in the affidavit by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and direct compliance so that the process of admission for the MDS Course for year 2021-22 will be completed within the timeline indicated."

The affidavit filed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare states that counseling for the MDS admission for Year 21-22 will commence on 20 August, 2021 and shall be completed by 10 October, 2021. 

The Court, however stressed that the concerned affidavit will be placed on record. 

Petitioiner's Plea

The petitioners seek issuance of a Writ in the nature of mandamus, order or Direction of similar nature to the authorities to release the schedule for The NEET-MDS 2021 counselling on an immediate basis and in any event not later than three weeks.

The petitioners have stated before the Court that umpteen efforts were made by the Petitioners to get in touch with the Respondents in order to get an idea about the schedule of the counselling. However, there has been no update about the date of the commencement of the counselling. Therefore, because of this delay the Petitioners and similarly placed candidates are surrounded by a cloud of uncertainty and have been under immense mental pressure for the last six months.

The Backdrop of the matter

The NEET-MDS 2021 was conducted on 16.12.2020. Thereafter, the results were also declared on 31.12.2020. However, after the declaration of the result there is no update regarding the counselling till 23.06.2021. Although the counselling for the NEET-MDS usually commences in March every year.

The Petitioners contended that any further delay in the announcement of the counselling dates will lead to wastage of entire year of the Petitioners and thousands of other candidates as Section 10.5 of the Information bulletin, as released by theMCC, states that results for NEET-MDS, 2021 will only be valid for the academic session 2021.

The Petitioners also pleaded before the Court to direct the MCCto conduct a separate counselling for the NEET-MDS 2021 and not wait for the commencement of NEET-MDS 2021 counselling until the counselling for NEET-PG commences. The contention being there is no reasonable nexus for the counselling of NEET-PG and NEET-MDS to be held together, when the former was postponed and decided not be conducted until 31.08.2021 with a one month notice to prepare thereafter.

NEET-MDS is the single eligibility cum entrance examination for admission to MDS Courses. This year, around 30,000 BDS (dental) graduates have appeared for the NEET-MDS 2021 conducted for admission over 6,500 seats in the country.

(Case Title- Debraj Samantha and Ors. v. Medical Counseling Committee (MCC) and Ors.)