Petition in Supreme Court questions Age limit for NEET, Competence of MCI to frame regulations

The petition also questioned whether the Medical Council of India has the competence to frame regulations prescribing eligibility conditions for appearing in NEET and whether the restrictions placed on aspiring medicos is reasonable or violative of Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India.

New Delhi The Supreme Court has received a petition challenging the Delhi High Court verdict upholding the upper age limit of 25 years for General category candidates and 30 years for those belonging to SC/ST/OBC category for appearing in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test.

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that in the month of May 2018, Delhi High Court dismissed pleas challenging the CBSE notification laying down the upper age limit of 25 and 30 years for general and reserved categories respectively to apply for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)-UG, a pre-qualification for pursuing MBBS course.

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court the said verdict. The appeal moved by 27-year-old Tribhuvan Singh. from Rajasthan questions whether the age of a candidate has any relation to competence, caliber, and merit of a candidate seeking admission to medicine courses.

The petition also questioned whether the Medical Council of India has the competence to frame regulations prescribing eligibility conditions for appearing in NEET and whether the restrictions placed on aspiring medicos is reasonable or violative of Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India, reports legal newspaper Livelaw.

It also raised the issue whether NEET should be the sole criteria to judge the eligibility and merit of a candidate to take admission in medicine courses in the country and should not there be any additional eligibility condition out for appearing in NEET.

On May 11, the Delhi High Court had upheld the CBSE’s upper age limit of 25 and 30 years for general and reserved categories, respectively, to apply for the pre-Medical test. It also allowed candidates from open schools to sit for the NEET exam.

The high court had said, “…need to put the upper age limit was necessary as there are approximately 61,000 seats for MBBS course in government and private medical colleges in the country. There has to be a level playing field for selection amongst lakhs of candidates who appear every year (in 2017, about 11 lakh candidates had appeared). It is obvious that a candidate who is 17 or 18 years of age will find it difficult to compete with a candidate who is above 26/31 years of age and has been studying for last 7 to 10 years or even more only to get admission to an MBBS course”.

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