HC rejects the plea to postpone final-year UG exams for medical students

The Bombay High Court, on Saturday, September 5, 2020, rejected a petitioner's plea to postpone the final year examinations of various medical degree courses. In an interim order, the court said that the petition cannot be granted as the stay was sought at the last minute. The exams will be conducted as per schedule, i.e. from Tuesday, September 8, 2020.

Nine students from different parts of India - Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Nagpur - joined hands to file an urgent public interest petition, expecting the final year examinations of various medical degree courses, be postponed for a later date. Students' demand was based on the coronavirus outbreak and the lockdown in several states where students appearing for the exams at several centres will be facing a risk.

The hearing was held before the bench of Justice Amjad Syed and Surendra Tawde via video conferencing, whereby the petitioners' advocates requested that based on the circular from the university, dated August 21, examinations should be postponed, as the number of coronavirus patients in Maharashtra was increasing every day, and the total tally had reached around 8 lakh, of which around 2 lakh patients were active and more than 25,000 had died due to coronavirus

Chief Public Prosecutor PP Kakade and Public Prosecutor Manish Pabele informed the bench that the state government and Maharashtra University of Health Sciences are conducting examinations at the centres keeping all the safety measures in place. Authorities also pointed out that the Supreme Court had recently rejected the request to postpone the NEET and JEE exams despite the Coronavirus crisis. Moreover,  the government prosecutors argued that the petition filed by nine students cannot be considered as a representation of all students.

After hearing the statements from both the entities, the bench decided not to cancel the examinations and the petitioner's urgent request was rejected, saying that the statement of the petitioner could not be considered as representative of all the students. The next hearing in the case will be held on September 17, 2020.