A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to increase the number of centres in Tamil Nadu for conduct of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for joining postgraduate medical courses so that local students need not undertake unnecessary travel to other States.

When the case was listed for admission before the second Division Bench of Justices R. Subbiah and Sathi Kumar Sukumara Kurup on Friday, the judges ordered notice to the NBE. Veerapillai Ramesh, an advocate from Villupuram had filed the case claiming that only 28 centres had been allotted in Tamil Nadu for NEET-PG 2021 scheduled on April 18 and that they got filled up in no time.

The petitioner pointed out that NBE conducts the NEET-PG examination on a computer-based platform and hence it had designated 255 centres across the country from where the candidates could appear. The online applications for the test were being accepted from February 23 to March 15 and those desirous of taking up the examination had to choose the centre from they intended to write the test.

However, within hours after NBE began accepting online applications on February 23, all 28 centres in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry got filled and many students were asked to choose the centres in other States. Claiming that Madurai Member of Parliament S. Venkatesan too had raised the issue with the Union Health Ministry on February 24, the petitioner said students should not be made to travel far for writing the test.