The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Centre, Medical Council of India and the National Testing Agency on a plea by around 4,000 students from the Gulf and West Asia, seeking allocation of overseas centres for NEET or postponement of the exam till the Covid-19 crisis blows over.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for undergraduate medical courses is tentatively scheduled for next month, but the dates have not been announced yet.

A bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ravindra Bhat sought the response of the authorities on the petition moved by a parent, Abdul Azeez, who pleaded that if the 4,000-odd students were not allowed to compete with their counterparts in India, it would be a violation of their fundamental right to equality guaranteed under Article 14.

According to advocate Haris Beeran, who appeared for the petitioner, the students have been preparing for NEET but would not be able to travel to India for the exam in view of the pandemic and cancellation of international flights.