Plea in SC for advancing hearing on EWS quota in NEET-PG

New Delhi, December 29

A letter petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, seeking advancing of the scheduled hearing in a matter pertaining to the ascertaining of the EWS quota in NEET-PG admissions.

It also sought the issuance of a direction to the Delhi Police Commissioner to initiate an inquiry and take stern action against the culprits in an incident of physical assault on protesting doctors by the police.

The letter petition written by advocate Vineet Jindal to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana sought a direction to the Centre to form a committee to address the issues related to the doctors concerned.

“The present letter petition is regarding the recent protest of the resident doctors for the last several days, headed by the Federation of Resident Doctors Association of India (FORDA), and the threat of mass resignation. This mass protest has resulted because the Union health ministry has not taken any concrete steps to expedite NEET-PG counselling,” it said.

The plea said the doctors have been striking work over the delay in the NEET-PG 2021 counselling, which was now pending the outcome of a batch of petitions over Economically Weaker Section (EWS) reservations before the apex court, which has fixed January 6 as the next date of hearing in the matter.

“The strike started with doctors boycotting work in out-patient clinics, which was later escalated to boycotting of all routine work such as care of admitted patients and routine surgeries when they did not receive any assurance from the Union Health Minister,” it said.

It added that initially, the delay in conducting the NEET-2021 PG examinations was due to the second wave of Covid-19 and it was further delayed due to the petitions pending for hearing before the court over the reservation issue.

“As per news reports, the Health Minister and other ministry officials denied to provide any written assurance as the matter was sub-judice and no assurance could be given till the outcome of the petitions pending with the court,” it said.

In his plea, Jindal pointed out that with the continuation of the boycott of hospital emergencies, all resident doctors hired on an ad-hoc basis have been warned by the hospitals of disciplinary action, including termination from service.

The petition said the FORDA has pointed out the “acute shortage” of resident doctors across the country as the counselling of the NEET-PG 2021 batch has already been delayed by eight months. – PTI