Allahabad High Court Questions Centre, MCI & CBSE Over NEET Age Limit Criteria

A division bench of Allahabad high court has sought an immediate reply from the Central Board of Secondary Education or CBSE, Medical Council of India or MCI and the Union Government, on the procedures that were followed for setting the upper age limit for the medical entrance test NEET or National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) this year.

Order passed on February 15, 2017, by a division bench in Lucknow comprised of:

• Justice Sanjay Harkauli
• Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi

The writ petition was filed by Navaneet Tripathi and 22 others candidates. They raised the common question on the prescribed upper age limit of 25 years for appearing in the NEET examination. Additionally, the Court was hearing the petitions. The application process for NEET 2017 has already commenced and the exam is scheduled to commence on Sunday, May 7, 2017.

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The petitioner said that the introduction of the upper age limit is not in conformity with the law and should be struck down. The upper age limit is also not supported by any procedure and regulation under the MCI Act.

However, the counsels of the MCI and the Central Government had produced various documents relating to the prescribed upper age limit in NEET. The Court termed the matter as an urgent and asked MCI and Central Government to file the counter affidavit on the issue on 20 February 2017, which is the next date of hearing.

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Importantly, another similar petition is also filed in the Apex Court of the country and 17 February 2017 is the next hearing date for the same.

NEET was made mandatory by Supreme Court last year for admissions into all medical and dental colleges for postgraduate and undergraduate courses.