Supreme Court allows candidates above 25 years to provisionally appear for NEET 2019 [Read Order]

In an interim order passed today, the Supreme Court allowed candidates who are 25 years of age and above to apply for and appear in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET 2019). However, they may take the examination provisionally, subject to the final outcome of the case..The order was passed by a Bench of Justices SA Bobde, L Nageswara Rao, and R Subhash Reddy..Senior Advocates Sanjay Hegde, Raju Ramachandran, PN Ravindran and Advocate Zoheb Hussain appeared for the petitioners..Hussain argued that NEET being the entry point to the medical profession, an eligibility criterion by way of age limit impacts the rights of the petitioners to choose the profession of their choice and the same can be done only by way of an enacted law and not a regulation. It was his case that such a regulation impinges upon his rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution..The judges also heard Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the Medical Council of India, after which they had a long discussion amongst themselves..The Court then passed an interim order allowing candidates who are 25 years of age and above to appear for the exam provisionally..“The petitioners/candidates who are 25 years of age and above shall be entitled to apply and appear in the NEET-UG 2019 examination. If they are allowed to appear in the said examination, they shall take the examination provisionally subject to the final outcome of these matters.”.The Court also directed that the portal of the National Testing Agency (NTA) shall remain open for one more week to enable such petitioners/candidates to apply for the NEET-UG 2019 examination..The NTA has been impleaded as a respondent in the main matter. It is expected to file its reply affidavit within four weeks..The case will now be listed for hearing in January 2019..Read the order below.