Madras High Court refuses to allow High IQ, underage student to write NEET

The Madras High Court on Tuesday set aside a single-judge order that had permitted a 16-year-old "underage" student to write the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for medical admissions, given that the law governing the field lays down that the candidate's minimum age should be 17 years as on December (National Testing Agency v. Minor SP. Shree Harini and ors).The minor student had been assessed as having superior intelligence and stood first in her class 10 and 12 Board exams, which she completed earlier this year. As per Neuro Psychological reports, she also had an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of 143. .Earlier, a single-Judge of the High Court had permitted her to appear for NEET if she was assessed to be eligible by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore after subjecting her to an IQ analysis. The National Testing Agency (NTA) which conducts the NEET, however, opposed the student's plea to write the NEET early. .While the NTA filed a writ appeal challenging the single-Judge direction, the student filed another writ petition seeking to quash the NTA's rejection of her request and for permission to write the NEET this year, although she would only attain the minimum age of 17 years in March next year. .A Division Bench of Justices Pushpa Sathyanarayana and D Krishnakumar on Tuesday declined to grant the student such permission in view of the fact that Court cannot traverse beyond the age restrictions clearly prescribed by the applicable regulations.."The prayer of the writ petitioner to permit her to write the examination would tantamount to exempting her of the age prescribed. When there is no such exemption clause available in the Regulations, we cannot traverse beyond the age prescribed", the Court said, in its lead judgment..In the lead judgment authored by Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, the Judge reasoned that to allow the age relaxation for the student before the Court may be unfair to other candidates and would open Pandora's box.."Allowing the writ petitioner to sit for the NEET would open up the Pandora's box and the Courts of this country will be flooded with such similar claims. On the other hand, except contending that the writ petitioner has high IQ level and she performed intellectually superior range in all the IQ tests, the learned Senior Counsel for the writ petitioner does not raise any other valid ground to take a different view in the matter", she opined. .There are many aspirants, particularly from a rural background, who do not have facilities including coaching classes to clear NEET in one go, she further observed. .The task ahead for NEET aspirants is tough considering the high level of competition and the large syllabus they have to cover. There are aspirants who may not even have online access to apply for NEET on their own, who would have to walk miles to apply and who are equally meritorious, she observed. In this backdrop, the Judge added that many students only manage to clear NEET in their second or subsequent attempts.."While so, if the candidates like the petitioner, who has not fulfilled the age criteria is allowed to write the examination, in the event of her success, it may deprive a seat to another meritorious student, who may not have the age and ability to write the NEET for the second time or third time," the judge said. .In any case, Justice Sathyanarayana pointed out that the prescription of the age limit is within the domain of the authorities concerned and the scope of judicial review is very limited. ."We are of the considered view that the authorities, who have been conducting the NEET, before formulating the regulations would have taken all the relevant aspects into consideration and would have obtained opinion from the experts in the subject and then only finalized and prescribed the age limit as a matter of policy," the judgment stated. .The Court added that it would not be right for it to direct the authorities to reduce the age limit for NEET, although the authorities may consider age relaxations by giving four or five years advanced notice or in a phased manner. This is so that candidates who are already preparing for the NEET and who have invested years, are allowed to exhaust their attempts. ."In the event NMC reduces the age limit and also the number of attempts, it may not be acceptable for many. Therefore, judicial review in this regard to reduce the age limit or exempt a student should be refrained," the Court said. .While Justice Krishnakumar concurred with "every word" written in Justice Sathyanarayana's judgment, he also flagged an anomaly in allowing the student to write her Board exams early, on the one hand, while rejecting her request to write the NEET early. ."While permitting the first respondent to clear 12th board of examination even prior to age of 16 by CBSE which is controlled and managed by the Union of India, considering her intelligence and maturity, the MCI which is also controlled and managed by the Union of India, cannot take away the legitimate expectation of the respondent by denying her the opportunity to appear for NEET 2021 examination, which will hit by 'doctrine of legitimate expectation' and amounts to denial of right guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution of India", he pointed out. .However, considering the clear age bar presently in force, Justice Krishnakumar also agreed that the student cannot be permitted to write NEET early. ."However, as concluded by my learned Sister Judge, the minimum age limit of 17 years does not permit the first respondent to participate in the NEET-2021 examination unless and otherwise, the said Rule is reconsidered by the MCI, this anomaly would continue," he said. .Senior advocate G Rajagopalan and advocate Sunitakumari appeared for the NTA. Senior advocate AR L Sundaresan and advocate AL Gandhimathi appeared for the student. Central government standing counsel RP Pragadish and Senior Panel counsel AR Sakthivel appeared for the Union of India. Advocates Shubaranjani Ananth and G Nagarajan appeared for the NMC and the CBSE, respectively. .[Read Judgment]