NEW DELHI, July 2: The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from the Centre on a plea against the “unjust and infinite delay” caused by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) in declaring the schedule for counselling for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test and Masters of Dental Surgery courses (NEET-MDS) 2021.

A bench, headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, issued notice to the Centre, the National Board of Examination, and the Dental Council of India on a petition filed by some NEET-MDS aspirants.

The petition, filed through advocates Tanvi Dubey and Charu Mathur, said that umpteen efforts were made by the petitioners to get in touch with the respondents in connection with the schedule of the counselling, however, so far, there is no update on it.

The plea contended that the entrance exam was held on December 16, 2020 and the results were declared on December 31, 2020. But, months have elapsed, and there is not update on the schedule of counselling.

The petition sought directions to the MCC to release the counselling date at the earliest, and not later than three weeks. It also cited the concerns associated with holding counselling together for NEET-PG and NEET-MDS, as the former has been postponed till August 31.

The petitioners held that waiting for the same would further delay NEET-MDS counselling, and urged the top court to issue direction to the MCC to conduct a separate counselling for the NEET-MDS 2021 and not wait for the counselling of NEET-PG.

The plea said: “From the past years records, it is clear that the time duration between the NEET-PG examination and announcement of result is at least one month. Further, the counselling schedule for NEET-PG is released three months after the results. Therefore, it will be unrealistic to organise the counselling for both the examinations together, as it would infinitely delay the counselling for the NEET-MDS candidates and would cause undue hardship to the NEET-MDS aspirants.”