NEET upper age bar: Supreme Court adjourns matter till March

The confirmation regarding this came from the Twitter handle of Dr. Amit Kumar, a student's rights activist, who has been advocating for the removal of the age bar in NEET. Responding to the numerous queries from several aspirants across the country, Dr. Gupta confirmed that the matter has been adjourned for March.

The age limit for the MBBS entrance examination had been put in place by CBSE back in 2017. CBSE, the authority in charge of conducting NEET back then, had mentioned in a notification, "The upper age limit for NEET-UG is 25 years as on the date of examination with relaxation of 5 years for the candidates belonging to SC/ST/OBC category". At that time, CBSE had also limited the number of attempts for appearing in the examination to three for all the candidates.

However, the age limit had been questioned several times before the High Courts and the Supreme Court. The matter has been pending before the Apex Court since 2018, after the Delhi High Court had declared "prescribing upper age limit of 25 years in case of general category candidates and 30 years in case of reserved category candidates is legal and valid."

Also Read:Study of Medicine requires SHARP YOUNG MINDS, MCI justifies age limit

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that when the matter was being considered by the Apex Court, the Medical Council of India (MCI), which has now been replaced by NMC had justified its decision of capping the upper age limit for NEET- at 25 years by pointing out that 'sharp young minds' are required to study medicine.

However, in an interim order, all the candidates had been made eligible for NEET without any age bar for appearing in the examinations.

The petition came up for hearing on January 31 again and Dr. Gupta, who has been fighting for the aggrieved students, was represented through his legal team led by Advocate Amit Kumar.

Assuring the students about positive outcomes, Dr Gupta wrote on Twitter, "All students preparing #NEET2022 should not worry at all & focus on their studies. Age Limit, NIOS, Additional Biology, Private, Gap years.. at the moment everyone of these are eligible for NEET and we will make sure that they remain eligible

Everything will be taken care of."

Further informing the aspirants about the development regarding the case, he mentioned in another Tweet, "Matter adjourned for March (order awaited) Meanwhile Relief to all age limit & other candidates will continue Students are advised to concentrate in their studies, rather than unnecessarily taking stress

Most probably government itself will roll back the age limit rule."

Now the matter has been listed by the Apex Court for further hearing on 15.03.2022.

It should be mentioned in this context, that the UG Medical Education Board of NMC has been considering the possibility of removing the upper age cap in NEET entrance. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that keeping in mind the problems of the students belonging to lower-income families, and the exodus of MBBS aspirants to foreign countries, NMC started contemplating the possibility of removing the upper age bar for MBBS admission.

In the paper titled "Seeking graduation in medical colleges outside India: Is it a 'win-win situation' or 'lose-lose situation' for the stakeholders and the nation?" the UGMEB officials have hinted at the possibility of removing the upper age bar for MBBS admission.

Such a consideration has come from the UGMEB of NMC after considering the fact that with the age bar gone, students keen on pursuing medical graduation can continue appearing on NEET for as many attempts as they wish, even after they get admitted to other courses.