SC agrees to hear plea for scrapping of upper age limit for NEET
AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: 05.06.2018
On a day NEET results were announced, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre, CBSE and Medical Council of India on a plea challenging the fixing of upper age limit to appear in the test for admission to medical courses in the country.
Agreeing to hear a batch of petitions filed by candidates who had appeared for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) this year and sought scrapping of the age limit, a vacation bench of Justice A K Goel and Justice Ashok Bhushan on Monday sought response from the Centre, CBSE and MCI.
CBSE had fixed upper age limit of 25 years for general category and 30 years for reserved category students to appear in NEET this year. It was challenged in the Delhi high court which had in February directed the Board to allow the students to provisionally appear in the exam. The test was held on May 6.
The Delhi high court, however, on May 11upheld CBSE’s decision on fixing the upper age limit for medical aspirants though it struck down a clause in the notification that barred students from open schools or those who had studied privately from appearing in the test.
The bench, at the outset, expressed reservations in entertaining the petitions saying it was a policy matter but it agreed to examine the issue after the petitioners contended that there had been no application of mind by CBSE and MCI in framing the policy. The court fixed the next hearing for July10.
Challenging the HC decision, senior advocate Amrendra Sharana and lawyer Amit Kumar, appearing for the aggrieved candidates, told the bench that the policy is arbitrary and restrictive in nature and should be quashed. They contended that age restriction was not there for appearing for entrance examinations of other medical colleges like All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER).
“In almost all developed countries such as USA, Canada, UK and most of European Union, Australia etc there is no upper-age limit for studying medicine if the student is otherwise competent to undertake the course. Therefore, there is no rationale behind the decision of as to why a candidate above the age of 25 years is not competent to take medicine courses in India. Similarly, there is no upperage limit for pursuing engineering and law courses and the reputed IITs and NLUs have not provided for any upper-age limit for admission,” the petition said.
AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: 05.06.2018
On a day NEET results were announced, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre, CBSE and Medical Council of India on a plea challenging the fixing of upper age limit to appear in the test for admission to medical courses in the country.
Agreeing to hear a batch of petitions filed by candidates who had appeared for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) this year and sought scrapping of the age limit, a vacation bench of Justice A K Goel and Justice Ashok Bhushan on Monday sought response from the Centre, CBSE and MCI.
CBSE had fixed upper age limit of 25 years for general category and 30 years for reserved category students to appear in NEET this year. It was challenged in the Delhi high court which had in February directed the Board to allow the students to provisionally appear in the exam. The test was held on May 6.
The Delhi high court, however, on May 11upheld CBSE’s decision on fixing the upper age limit for medical aspirants though it struck down a clause in the notification that barred students from open schools or those who had studied privately from appearing in the test.
The bench, at the outset, expressed reservations in entertaining the petitions saying it was a policy matter but it agreed to examine the issue after the petitioners contended that there had been no application of mind by CBSE and MCI in framing the policy. The court fixed the next hearing for July10.
Challenging the HC decision, senior advocate Amrendra Sharana and lawyer Amit Kumar, appearing for the aggrieved candidates, told the bench that the policy is arbitrary and restrictive in nature and should be quashed. They contended that age restriction was not there for appearing for entrance examinations of other medical colleges like All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER).
“In almost all developed countries such as USA, Canada, UK and most of European Union, Australia etc there is no upper-age limit for studying medicine if the student is otherwise competent to undertake the course. Therefore, there is no rationale behind the decision of as to why a candidate above the age of 25 years is not competent to take medicine courses in India. Similarly, there is no upperage limit for pursuing engineering and law courses and the reputed IITs and NLUs have not provided for any upper-age limit for admission,” the petition said.
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