November 23, 2024 07:23 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
'Third World War has begun:' Ex-Ukraine military commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny | UK-India Free Trade Agreement negotiations to resume in early 2024 | UK can arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits country based on ICC warrant | Centre to send over 10,000 additional soldiers to violence-hit Manipur amid fresh violence | Chhattisgarh: 10 Maoists killed during encounter with security forces in Sukma
SC issues notices to center, MCI over inclusion of Urdu as medium in NEET

SC issues notices to center, MCI over inclusion of Urdu as medium in NEET

| | 03 Mar 2017, 10:16 pm
New Delhi, Mar 3 (IBNS): SIO's petition for inclusion of Urdu as a medium for NEET 2017, a common entrance test for admissions in MBBS and BDS courses across the country, on Friday led the Supreme Court to seek responses from the Central government and Medical Council of India (MCI).


The next hearing will be on Mar 10, said Ravinder S Garia.

A bench comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and R Banumathi said while taking note of the petition filed by Students Islamic Organisation (SIO), issued notice to center and MCI.

The bench also noted the submission that MCI was open to include any language as a medium of National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET) if a request was made to it by states concerned.

Besides the Centre and MCI, the court also issued notices to Dental Council of India (DCI) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and fixed the plea for further hearing on March 10.

Advocate Ravinder S Garia on behalf of SIO informed the court that Maharashtra and Telangana have already apprised the MCI that Urdu be included as one of the medium for conducting NEET.

In terms of number of people speaking a language Urdu ranks Sixth in India as the per the Census report. Also, Urdu is one the languages listed in Schedule VIII of the Indian Constitution. A large number of students study science in Urdu Medium for their Eleventh and 12th Class Exams. N.C.E.R.T text books for Eleventh and 12th class are available in Urdu, when such text books are not available in several other languages such as Kannada.

Earlier, the apex court had refused to give urgent hearing to the petition, filed by SIO, alleging that exclusion of Urdu as one of the languages in NEET exam to be held on May 7 was "arbitrary and violative of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution".

"The decision to exclude Urdu was discriminatory, arbitrary, unreasonable and violative of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution," it said.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.