Petition filed in HC against age limit for NEET

The Centre had issued a gazette notification on January 23, fixing the upward age limit at 25 for the candidates belonging to unreserved category while for the SC/ST/OBC candidates, the upper age limit has been fixed at 30.

Last year, the upward age limit was cancelled by the Central agencies, following some restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court. But this year, a fresh notification has been issued to introduce the upper age limit in NEET, scheduled to take place later this year.

It may be mentioned that there had been no upper age limit for the candidates appearing for the entrance examinations both in MBBS and BDS earlier. Following the gazette notification, issued by the Medical Council of India (MCI), one Arun Ghorai has filed a writ petition in the Calcutta High Court, challenging the decision of the Union health ministry.

According to Ghorai who moved the petition, the decision taken by the Centre had been contrary to the spirit of the constitution of India. None can be prevented from appearing in the examination on the basis of his/her age.

As per the existing rule which is expected to apply for NEET 2018 as well, a candidate can appear for NEET a maximum of three times. If a candidate has already appeared for NEET in 2017, then that would be counted as the candidate's first attempt and then a candidate can only appear two more times. If any aspirant is planning to appear for NEET for the first time in 2018, then the candidate can appear for NEET 2018 and a further two times (total three times).

NEET is held annually as a single window national-level entrance examination, which offers admission to 90,000 MBBS and BDS seats across 700-odd medical and dental colleges across the country. As per a 2016 Supreme Court order, the exam was introduced to completely replace the erstwhile All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT).