SC: CBSE To conduct NEET 2013 Supplementary Exams in Urdu Medium

The Supreme Court had issued a notice to the Central Government, the Ministry of Human Resource Department, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Medical Council of India (MCI) etc. on exclusion of Urdu as a medium of examination in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to MBBS/BDS and allied medical courses.

The final decision was taken by the supreme Court on Thursday which has brought relief to thousand number of Urdu medium students aspiring to get admission in MBBS/BDS and allied medical courses through National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-2013).

The Supreme court of India has hereby directed the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) to conduct the supplementary NEET-2013 in Urdu medium for the students of Maharashtra within 8 weeks from May 2, 2013.

A bench headed by Justice Altamash Kabir, while disposing off a petition filed by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (Maulana Mahmood Madani) on behalf of Ansari Mahan Fatima an aspirant, however, clarified that the direction is only meant to one time arrangement and will not be applicable to next year test.

Moreover, the Apex Court did not provide any relief for the candidates who had already filled up the forms and chose the other medium of question paper. "They cannot change their medium. They will have to take the entrance test in their already opted medium. As for the left over candidates who were desirous of taking the entrance test in Urdu medium will have to fill up the fresh forms as per the fresh notification of CBSE for Urdu medium students," the court observed.

The Supreme Court took the decision after hearing the views of MCI (medical council of India) which was sought within a week in a notice sent.

Responding to notice, the MCI had argued that the CBSE only acted on what Maharashtra government had recommended. The CBDE had sought representations from various states regarding the medium of entrance test. The Government of Maharashtra had recommended the medium of entrance test for NEET-2013 in Marathi language only and did not recommend the Urdu medium.

Representing JUH, senior advocate June Chaudhari, assisted by Shakil Ahmad Syed, Mohd. Parvez Dabas, SA Saud, Mohd. Moonis Abbasi in the petition had earlier urged the court to issue a direction, in the interest of thousands of Urdu medium students, to respondents to include Urdu as a medium of examination like other eight national and regional languages were included.

They argued that the respondents' decision of conducting the NEET in English, Hindi and other six regional languages excluding Urdu language is discriminatory, arbitrary, unreasonable and violates Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution. They further maintained that even Marathi language was included even though there is not a single Marathi Medium Science Junior college all over Maharashtra, whereas, there are more than 7800 Urdu medium students and the number of junior colleges in which the medium of instruction is Urdu is as high as 227 in the state. The total number of such junior colleges in the entire state is thus much higher, whereas Marathi medium students are only about 350.

Referring to the petitioner student, they said he Petitioner is an Urdu medium student of intermediate/XIIth and could not fill up forms of NEET an entrance test mandatory for admission to medical courses due to the exclusion of the Urdu language from medium of question papers.

In petition, it was also asserted that The Maharashtra Government and other State Govt. prior to 2013 conducted entrance test for medical courses in regional languages including Urdu. And on 03.12.2012 Govt. of Maharashtra issued notification that it is mandatory to appear in NEET for admission to medical courses and State Govt. will not conduct any test for admission to MBBS and 12 other medical courses.

The CBSE issued notification regarding admission to the medical courses MBBS, BDS etc. making provision that candidates who have passed XII and equivalent qualifying exam from State Board Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujrat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and west Bengal under state quota can opt for Question paper in regional languages i.e. Telugu, Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil and Bengali. The CBSE excluded the Urdu language from the medium of language of question papers.