Delhi High Court has rejected the plea seeking a direction to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMSPG) to postpone the post graduate (PG) courses exams.
While acknowledging that there’s a strong need for AIIMS to increase its capacity in the present scenario, the Single Bench of Justice Jayant Nath noted that AIIMS will be bound by all advisories/guidelines regarding precautions to be taken for these gatherings as prescribed and as per usual medical norms while conducting exams.
The order was the result of a writ petition asking the court to quash the order dated 01/06/20 by AIIMS wherein it fixed the date of 11.06.2020 for the PG entrance examination.
Petitioners, who are all MBBS doctors, submitted that COVID-19 cases are exploding day-to-day and have crossed 2.5 lakhs. In this background conducting PG entrance test on 11.06.2020 would be incorrect.
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Petitioners also placed reliance on the notification of the National Testing Agency to postpone several other examinations.
The Petitioner further argued that there is no need to hold the examination in order to augment the numbers of doctors available with AIIMS as AIIMS can easily appoint non-academic junior residents doctors on contractual basis.
While pointing out that a large amount of resources has already been invested in conducting these exams at 250 centres across the country, the counsel appearing for AIIMS submitted that all precautions prescribed by the concerned governments including norms of Social-Distancing etc. would be maintained while carrying out the examination.
Medical Council of India supporting the stance taken by AIIMS stated that given the present pandemic conditions, this would augment the medical capacity of AIIMS which is a very important aspect.
At the outset, the court observed that the petition is liable to be dismissed on the basis of delay and laches on part of the petitioner as they approached the court just two days before the scheduled date of the examination.
Even otherwise, the court further said, there is a clear stipulation that all advisories/guidelines of Government of India regarding Social-Distance and Sanitization will be followed at the exam centres. Hence, safety measures are being taken.
In light of the above the court held,
‘Clearly, there are no cogent reasons to postpone the PG entrance examination as is sought to be urged now at the very last minute. The respondent/AIIMS will be bound by all advisories/guidelines regarding precautions to be taken for these gatherings as prescribed and as per usual medical norms.’
The Petitioners in this case were represented by Mr Md.Azam Ansari, Mr. Athar Alam and Mr. SumbolAtha
