HC sets aside order permitting 16-year-old girl to write NEET

‘A certain level of maturity is required to join medical courses’

A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday set aside an order passed by a single judge of the court permitting a 16-year-old girl to appear for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) scheduled to be held on Sunday though the minimum age for writing the test, meant to gain admission in medical colleges, is 17 years. Justices Pushpa Sathyanarayana and Krishnan Ramasamy held that courts could not interfere in criteria prescribed by the National Medical Commission (NMC) and National Testing Agency (NTA) and order relaxations. They agreed with senior counsel G. Rajagopalan, representing NTA, that a certain level of maturity was required to join medical courses. However, penning a few additional paragraphs to the main verdict authored by Justice Sathyanarayana, Justice Ramasamy expressed serious concern over the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) having allowed the girl to write Plus Two examination but the NTA and NMC refusing to permit her to appear for NEET-2021.