Supreme Court Directs Centre to conduct NEET in Urdu from 2018-19

Supreme Court directed the Centre to conduct NEET in Urdu from 2018-19 academic sessions. Currently, NEET is being conducted in ten languages Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, Bengali, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada Languages. The solicitor general Ranjit Kumar said to the Supreme Court that a students' body called Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) seeking NEET examination in Urdu language has accused the Centre of being communal.

A bench comprising justices Dipak Misra, A.M. Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar has informed the petitioner that it would be not possible for the government to include Urdu as medium for NEET 2017 which is to be conducted on 7th May 2017. The bench said that they direct the Union of India to include Urdu as a language in NEET examination from academic session 2018-19 onwards.

When the counsel for the petitioner insisted that Urdu language should be included in NEET examination from this year itself, the bench said, "The whole problem is that this year it is not possible." "There are lots of difficulties. Please try to understand that we can't ask them (Centre) to do miracles. The examination is on May 7 and today is April 13. Lots of process is involved in this," the bench said.

Solicitor general, appearing for the Centre, said that they were not opposed to the suggestion of conducting NEET examination in Urdu medium also from 2018 academic year onwards. At present, NEET is being conducted in ten languages - Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, Bengali, Assamese, Telegu, Tamil and Kannada languages. The court had earlier sought reply from the Centre, MCI, DCI and CBSE on the plea suggesting making Urdu as a medium for NEET 2017.