SC notice to Centre, CBSE, MCI on age limit in NEET

The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre, CBSE and the Medical Council of India on a plea challenging the upper-age limit for the NEET exam.

The plea challenges the upper-age limit of 25 years for general category and 30 years for the SC/ST category candidates appearing in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to MBBS and BDS courses.

A vacation bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ashok Bhushan sought a response from the Centre and others on a batch of a petition filed by Jalaludheen T and over 170 others.

Senior advocate Amrendra Sharan and advocate Amit Kumar contended the decision to fix the upper age limit was contrary to earlier recommendations of an expert committee.

“Allowing all candidates who wish to appear for the test will raise the level of competition and would ensure availability of better doctors,” the counsel said.

Though the court said all these issues fell under the domain of the government as a policy matter, it agreed to examine the matter on July 10.

The court, however, declined to issue any direction to the CBSE to declare the results of those candidates, beyond the upper age limit, as they were permitted by the Delhi High Court to appear in the NEET-UG 2018.

It said their results would be subject to the outcome of the matter.

The petitioners challenged the high court's order of May 11, upholding the validity of the CBSE's notification, fixing the age-cap for the NEET-UG 2018.

The high court, however, has struck down a provision which barred students who did open schooling from appearing in the exam.