Delhi HC dismisses plea of underage student seeking permission to sit in NEET-2021
Aug 17, 2021
New Delhi [India], August 17 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismisses a plea seeking direction to National Testing Agency (NTA) in order to allow petitioner/student who is 13 months underage for the entrance test NEET-2021 conducted by the testing agency.
The Bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh on Tuesday while dismissing the plea, said we see no reason to entertain the matter, there are no substances. We find no reason to reduce to age criteria. Court also imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on the petitioner.
The petitioner student also urged the court to direct NTA to amend impugned regulation concerned with minimum age criteria of 17 years as of December 2021 for first-year UG medical course for students appearing in the entrance test (NEET-2021) by replacing with 15 years similar to JEE-2021 for UG Engineering courses, as it is ultra vires to Indian Medical Council Act 1956.
The petition was filed by a minor student through advocate Surendra Kumar Yadav.
Medical Council of India issued an impugned Notification on Graduate Medical Education 1997 concerned with eligible age to appear in the entrance test for MBBS program. In Notification /Regulation, Eligibility Criteria for Admission to the Medical Course in connection with age is mentioned in para point no. 4.1 that "He/she shall complete the age of 17 years on or before 31 st December of the year of admission to the MBBS".
"The requirement of the age of 17 years on or before December 31 of the year of admission to the MBBS is not mentioned in the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956," the plea read.
"The Petitioner is a minor citizen of India. The date of birth of Petitioner as per documents is January 26, 2006 That Petitioner is an intelligent student and passed his matriculation in 2019 and class 12 exam in 2021," the plea added.
The petitioner said that he is suffering a lot mentally and psychologically day by day because he is not able to complete the registration on the website, the petitioner's lawyer argued.
Classmates of the petitioner are appearing for NEET-2021 but due to 13 months issue, Petitioner even cannot fill online form for the entrance test, the petitioner said.
"This shall also be a violation of Fundamental Rights enumerated in Article 14, 16, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India directly or indirectly for Petitioner citizen who is a student and want to peruse a UG Course in medicine," the petition said.
