English medium candidates join as respondents in case against CBSE with Gujrat HC

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court allowed a group of candidates who appeared in National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 in English medium to join as respondents in a petition seeking to hold afresh the entrance test with an uniform set of questions for Gujarati and English medium students.

Justice S G Shah kept the matter for further hearing on Tuesday after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which conducted the NEET on 7 May, sought time to file reply.

Students who had appeared for the NEET 2017 in English medium filed an application to join as respondents, which was allowed by the court. They contended that any decision to cancel the test will have an adverse effect on them and hence they should also be heard by the court.

Candidates who had appeared for the test in Gujarati medium had moved the high court seeking its direction to the CBSE to scrap the test held on 7 May and hold it afresh with same set of question papers for English and Gujarati languages. They said that questions asked to candidates who opted for Gujarati as their medium were almost different and were difficult from questions asked to English medium students. They said that the same set of questions should be asked to all the candidates because the merit list prepared by the CBSE will be common for all candidates.

The NEET is a test for admission to medical and dental colleges, and this year, the CBSE held the test in 10 languages.