NEET age limit: HC says the shortage of few days need not stand in the way of age eligibility

The Madras High Court ruled on Tuesday that a deficit of a few days for specific age-grades should not be an obstacle for a smart student seeking admission or writing tests like NEET.

Citing an order from an Andhra Pradesh High Court presided over by Judge V. Ramasupramanian in 2019 In a similar case, the current Pushpa Sathyanrayana and Krishnan Ramasamy magistrate made this observation today. However, he refused to allow an underage girl to write NEET.

The seat noted that the 2019 order read: “We would like to place on record our concern that the Medical Council of India (MCI) should take a call in such cases because, in cases of people with less than a few days of age, they cannot be considered minors. The concept can be applied. Considering an underage person applies to people who were unable to complete a C at a certain time or who were unable to complete an intermediate level at a given time and cannot be applied to cases where candidates General entered in the required age, but did not complete the same age due to the shortage in the few days “.

Originally, minor girl Shree Harini of  Thanjavur district has proposed to the Supreme Court to appeal the order of August 9 this year from the National Testing Agency (NTA), refusing to allow her to write the NEET exam, which is scheduled for Sunday, September 12. She disposed of the petition with a directive for the petitioner to appear before the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore and undergo an IQ test and if he qualifies to appear on the NEET-UG 2021 test, it may be he may be permitted to sit in the examination.

Aggrieved over the same, the instant appeal was filed by the NTA.

Allowing the same and reversing the sole judge’s orders, the current court noted that the girl was given a double promotion from Class 7 to Class 9 and allowed to appear in the 10th Board Examination even before completing 14 years and there were no objections. all the time by CBSE’s first responder and even appearing on the Twelfth Board Exam when she was under the age of 16.

“Therefore, when CBSE allowed a girl to complete the 12th examination of the board even before the age of 16, we believe that there may be no justification on the part of the NTA to reject her request for relaxation in age,” said the platform.

However, since the rule specifically provides for the bar association, this court cannot revoke it. Furthermore, allowing the petitioner to sit in NEET would open Pandora’s box and flood the courts of this country with similar lawsuits.

Furthermore, except for the claim that the petitioner had a high IQ and performed in an intellectually superior rank on all IQ tests, her first counselor did not provide any other valid reason for having a different opinion on the matter. the court said.