Supreme Court refuses to relax NEET age limit

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a writ petition challenging the age limit of 25 years for general category and 30 years fixed for reserved category students for appearing in the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for the ensuing academic year 2018-19 for MBBS/BDS medical admissions.

A Bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and La. Nageswara Rao dismissed at the admission stage as “no merits” a writ petition filed by Kumari Bobbili Anusha and others challenging the notification issued by the Central board of Secondary Education on January 22 this year for fixing the 30-year age limit for reserved category students.

The petitioners said the CBSE and the Medical Council of India had arbitrarily fixed the age limit of 30 years. They said such an age limit directly affected them as their age was beyond the age limit of 30 years and they would be ineligible to write the NEET examination this year. They pointed out that they would lose an opportunity to appear in the test if this age restriction is implemented.

They argued that the arbitrary classification of medical aspirants to take the test is a violation of the rights guaranteed under the Constitution as the notification has the effect of taking away the right to practice and profess any profession within the country. They pleaded for quashing the notification and a direction to allow them to take the NEET examination for this year.