The Central government has, on Monday, announced to the Supreme Court that the results of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for the undergraduate medical admissions will be published on October 16. The disclosure of the Center had stirred the expectations from the medical aspirants on having a lenient gateway to secure the medical admissions. 

The information was disclosed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Monday and the apex court said that the students who had missed the national exam, that held on September 13, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and getting trapped in the containment zones can appear for NEET exams on October 14 and the results for such students will also be declared on October 16. 

According to reports, Tushar Mehta had made the submissions of the Central government to the apex court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India. Unlike the previous years, the NEET exam for this year was surfaced with massive outrage after the students and political parties had demanded the Center to defer the entrance exam owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions. 

The JEE and NEET aspirants had filed multiple petitions in the Supreme Court with the demand for postponing the exams. The aspirants had sought the directive from the Supreme Court to defer the examinations by citing the issues like the COVID-19 outbreak, lack of transportations, lack of accommodation facilities, and the flood situation in various states. 

The students had also highlighted the mental stress they endure while preparing for the national exams. However, the petitions of the students and aspirants were dismissed by the Supreme Court and said that the national exam would be conducted on September 13. As per the directive, the exam was conducted in a single-shot across the nation. However, hundreds of students had missed the exam with some of them had tested positive for the COVID-19 viral infection and others got trapped in the containment zones. 

The Center had announced to the Supreme Court that for the students who had missed the exam, they can appear for the exam on October 14 and their results would also be declared on October 16. Following the exam, Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal had said that as per the data of the National Testing Agency (NTA), the national entrance exam had recorded 85-90% of attendance out of the 15.97 lakh candidates who had registered for the NEET this year.