New Delhi, Aug 8: The Supreme Court on Tuesday considered the Centre’s submission regarding inclusion of Urdu as a language in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) from academic session 2018-19 onwards. This comes in the wake of accusation made by a student body, which sought conducting of NEET in Urdu, that the Centre was communal. While the Centre said it will not be feasible to introduce Urdu in the present session, it said it is not opposed to doing the same in the next session.
Headed by Justice Dipak Misra, the bench noted the submission made by Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, that it was not opposed to conducting the NEET in Urdu medium as well from 2018. Noteworthy that at present, the test is conducted in Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, Bengali, Assamese, Telegu, Tamil and Kannada languages.
The solicitor general had on March 31 told the apex court that a students’ body seeking conduct of the NEET in Urdu language had accused the Centre of being “communal”. The submission was made while referring to an affidavit filed by the Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) through its national secretary Thouseef Ahamad.
“The exam for this academic session is already over. We can’t put the clock back…The appeal is disposed of,” the bench, also comprising Justice A M Khanwilkar, said.
The Centre had told the court it was not feasible to introduce Urdu as one of the mediums for the NEET from the current academic year.
The court had earlier sought the response of the Centre, the Medical Council of India, the Dental Council Of India, and the Central Board of Secondary Education on the plea for making Urdu as a medium for the NEET 2017.
With PTI inputs
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