A petition has been filed by 17 BHMS and BAMS doctors in the Supreme Court seeking to defer the notification released for conducting All India AYUSH Post Graduate Entrance Test, AIAPGET 2020 on August 29, 2020.
The Entrance Test of AYUSH is conducted yearly by the National Testing Agency under the aegis of the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA).
“Due to the fact of already being infected by COVID-19 or due to being in quarantine presently, many Doctors (including many Petitioners herein) will be deprived of appearing in the aforesaid AIAPGET- 2020 on 29.08.2020, which will be in flagrant violation of their fundamental right to equality, as enshrined within Article 14 of Constitution of India.”
The plea read
The plea argues that the respondent-authorities would be discriminating against the petitioners in insisting on the conduct of the exams during the pandemic, considering that many other professional bodies have held off their entrance examinations.
Apart from this, the exam notification comes less than two months before the actual examination, with not enough examination centres, the petitioners state.
The earlier editions of the AYUSH test were notified at least two months prior to the test, whereas this year’s examination has been notified only seventeen days before the actual examination, it is explained. The petition argues that this unduly discriminates against the petitioners.
The shortage of examination centres is another concern flagged by the petitioners. With the example of Gujarat, the petitioners highlight how many of the examination’s centres are situated in red zones or areas with a high density of coronavirus infections.
This would increase the possibility of the petitioners contracting the infection and transmitting it to members of their family at risk, such as the elderly and those with comorbidities.
Questioning why the decision to conduct the examination was taken without consulting stakeholders, the petitioners also note that many States have placed an embargo on holding any kind of professional examination.
In such a scenario, requiring AYUSH postgraduate entrance applicants to take an examination would “unimaginably harass” them, the petitioners aver.