Mumbai:
Providing a timely relief to hundreds of Urdu medium students, the
Supreme Court of India in a historic decision on Thursday directed
the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to hold within
eight weeks supplementary National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)
for those who had opted Urdu language as the medium of answer for
the coveted exam.
The decision was taken by a three
member bench headed by Chief Justice Altamash Kabir.
The regular NEET is scheduled to be
held across the country on May 05. The examination is the
entrance test for admission to MBBS/BDS and allied medical courses
The Supreme Court also directed the
CBSE to call for separate application forms within the stipulated
time for the supplementary exams.
The Supreme Court also said that the
decision was only for the year 2013 and meant only for those
students who had opted Urdu as the language of answer while
applying for the 2013 exams.
It said that those who had selected
English or any other language could not be able to re-apply for
the supplementary exams.
Jamiat Ulama-i Hind and other petitioner Ansari Mahin Fatema, a
girl aspirant hailed from Beed Maharashtra in their petition,
had urged the court to issue a direction, in the interest of thousands
of Urdu medium students, to respondents to include Urdu as medium
of examination like other eight national and regional languages
were included.
Anoop George Chaudhari Sr. Adv. assisted by Shakil Ahmad
Syed, Mohd. Parvez Dabas and Shuaibuddin advocates appearing in
the aforesaid case argued that the respondents’ decision of
conducting the NEET in English, Hindi and other 6 regional
languages excluding Urdu language is discriminatory, arbitrary,
unreasonable and violative of 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 Jr. 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 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, Gujrati, Marathi, Tamil and Bengali. The
CBSE excluded the Urdu language from the medium of language of
question papers.
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