NEET UG: NO UPPER AGE BAR TO APPEAR FOR MEDICAL ENTRANCE EXAMS

(The Quiver) : The National Medical Commission, on March 9, announced that there will not be any fixed upper age limit for appearing in the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test, the entrance test for admission into medical colleges across India.

It was first in 2016 that the Central Board of Secondary Education under the education ministry, which then conducted the NEET, had first decided to impose an upper age limit criterion for medical aspirants.

This decision was soon challenged, first in the Delhi High Court and then the Supreme Court.

The Court had said that till the final disposal of the ongoing case, the age limit criteria will not apply and had sought to know the NMC’s stand on the matter.

In a letter issued to the National Testing Agency , which conducts the entrance examination, NMC secretary Pullesh Kumar wrote that in a meeting held on October 21 last year, it had been decided that there should not be any fixed upper age limit for appearing in the NEET-UG examination.

Now at the present, after the final announcement of NMC on March 9 , students of any age are permitted to appear in NEET but this is only a result of an interim relief granted the Supreme Court after a group of students had challenged a government decision to fix the upper age limit for the general category students at 25 years and reserve category students at 30 years six years back.