The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that candidates above the age of 25 years can appear in the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) 2017. The deadline for filling in the forms for the examination has been extended to April 5. The court said the age limit for the exams can be fixed from the next academic year.
The previous rule set by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) allowed candidates to attempt NEET exam three times until the maximum age limit of 25 years for general category and 30 years for reserved categories. The bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, was hearing a plea that challenged the age limit fixed by the CBSE for candidates appearing for NEET 2017.
The SC is also expected to hear the plea on whether to conduct NEET in Urdu. Media reports suggest the Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) had requested the apex court to include Urdu also as a medium for exam this year. The SIO had previously demaded the Medical Council of India (MCI) include Urdu so that students, who have had a formal education in Urdu, are not left out.
NEET 2017 will now be held in 23 new cities in the country, Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javdekar had announced through a series of tweets on March 24.
The 23 cities have been added to the existing 80 cities where NEET is usually conducted. Therefore, in total, the exams will be conducted in 103 cities in the country. The number is now on par with the number of centre cities where IITJEE is conducted.
NEET 2017 will be conducted on May 7 this year in 10 languages — Hindi, English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya and Kannada.
NEET is an entrance exam for students who wants to study medicine — MBBS, dental course (BDS) or postgraduate course (MD/MS) — in government or private medical colleges in India.
