NEET 2017: Petition to roll back age criteria filed in Supreme Court

According to the guidelines, a candidate can appear only thrice for NEET and his age should not be over 25 years

A petition to roll back the age criteria for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate courses has been filed in the Supreme Court on Friday. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s decision to introduce age and attempt cap for NEET has students up in arms across the state.

The petitioner, 27-year-old Sabyasachi Rai, qualified NEET last year but did not take admission as he could not afford the fees of private medical college. “My father was ready to sell our ancestral land. I decided to go for another attempt but with the unexpected announcement on age criteria, I have become ineligible to take the exam. I am not demanding job from the government but my basic right for education,” said the son of a farmer.

The petition, to be listed on February 17, states that the government should take back the new rules on age and attempt.

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According to the guidelines, a candidate can appear only thrice for NEET and his age should not be over 25 years. Students who have been preparing for the entrance exam are unhappy with the decision.

Thirty-year-old Pallavi Srivastava, an aspirant from Bihar’s Samastipur, has to face a tough time convincing her parents to put money in her education. “Being from a conservative background, my parents wanted me to get married. But I wanted to pursue higher studies in medicine. With the introduction of new criteria, I am ineligible to apply,” said Srivastava who feels small city students will be badly hit.

“When I came to Patna after Class 12, I realised most of our concepts on Physics and other subjects were unclear. We did not know what kind of questions are being asked in entrance exams. With these criteria, how many small town students will be able to become doctor?” said Srivastava.

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Earlier, medical aspirants who have already given AIPMT and NEET 2016 over three times were notified ineligible to appear for the entrance examination. However, on February 3, the authorities clarified the NEET 2017 will be counted as first attempt for all the candidates, irrespective of their previous attempts in AIPMT/NEET.

Dr Anand Rai, who has been vocal about medical aspirants rights, said education is the fundamental right and the government should take its decision back. “Thousands of students are depressed as their dream to become a doctor is over. Such announcement should have been made a year ago,” said Rai.

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Neeti Nigam

Neeti Nigam leads the education department at indianexpress.com. She joined the Indian Express in 2015 and has set up the education and job sections in the online department. She covers schools and higher education, entrance and board exams, study abroad, civil services and other career-related news. Prior to that, she worked as a lifestyle and entertainment journalist in The Pioneer newspaper's magazine division. Besides working in the in-flight Air India (Namaskaar) magazine, she was part of the launch team of Indian Railways on-board magazine Rail Bandhu. She has also worked as a city reporter covering north Delhi in Hindustan Times. In 2012, she covered the MCD elections. You can write to her at neeti.nigam@indianexpress.com ... Read More