HC issues notice to CBSE on plea to cancel NEET

The Madras High Court has sought the CBSE's stand on a plea to cancel the May 7 National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, held for selection of candidates for undergraduate medical and dental courses.

A vacation bench of Justice R Mahadevan sought the CBSE's stand issuing it notice on the plea by an aspiring medical student's mother, who has contended that the examination breached the students' right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.

The bench had issued the notice to CBSE, slating the matter for to hear again on May 24.

The mother of the candidate, who took the test in English language, has termed the test as being violative of the Article 14 contending that all the question papers in various language, including Hindi, English and Tamil, were not same and not of same difficulty level.

The petitioner submitted that selection under NEET would not amount to testing equal skills.

It would amount to treatment of unequals as equals and thereby violating Article 14 of the Constitution, she submitted.

She submitted though the test was conducted across India in all major languages, including Tamil, English and Hindi, the question paper in English was based on the CBSE syllabus, whereas the one in Tamil was based on the state syllabus.