The Madras High Court bench, however, refused to allow a minor girl to write the NEET UG 2021 scheduled for September 12.
In a major development regarding the National Entrance Eligibility Test (NEET-UG) scheduled for September 12, the Madras High Court observed on Tuesday that the lack of a few days for the prescribed age qualification should not be a hindrance for a smart student seeking admission or passing exams like NEET.
A bench of Judges Pushpa Sathyanarayana and Krishnan Ramasamy cited an order from a division bench of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, led by Judge V Ramasubramanian in 2019 in a similar case. He refused, however, to allow an underage girl to write the NEET.
The judiciary stressed that the 2019 order stated that “we would like to express our concern that the Medical Council of India (MCI) take an appeal on such cases, as the cases of people under age days, can’t really The concept of considering a person a minor can apply to people who could not have completed the LC at some point or who could not have completed the intermediate at some point and it cannot be applied to cases where applicants have largely entered the required age but had not completed the same due to the lack of a few days. “
Underage girl Shree Harini from Thanjavur District has asked the High Court to challenge the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) order dated August 9 denying her permission to take the NEET exam. A single judge ruled on the petition ordering her to appear before the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore and undergo an IQ test and determine if she is eligible for the NEET UG exam 2021., she may be allowed to sit for the exam.
However, an instant appeal was filed by the NTA.
Authorizing the same and overturning the orders of the single judge, the current panel noted that the girl had received a double promotion from the 7th standard to the 9th standard and that she had been allowed to sit for the examination of the 10th board examination before even having reached the age of 14 and there was no objection from the CBSE for the first responder and even taking the 12th board exam when she was under 16.
