NEET 2017: Madras HC issues notice to CBSE over plea seeking cancellation

NEET 2017 was held on May 7. A petition filed in the Madras HC claims that NEET is in violation of right to equality

The Madras High Court has issued a notice to Central Board of Secondary Education over a petition seeking cancellation of NEET. The Madras HC issued the notice after admitting a plea by an aspiring medical student's mother who contended that the examination breached the students' right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.

The petitioner has held that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test which was held on May 7 breached right to equality and hence should be cancelled. A vacation bench of Justice R Mahadevan has sought CBSE's reply to the same. CBSE has been asked to respond by May 28 when the matter will come up for hearing again.

The mother of an aspiring medical student who took NEET in English on May 7 claimed that the question papers in various language, including Hindi, English and Tamil, were not same and also differed in difficulty level. The petitioner submitted that selection under NEET would not amount to testing 'equal skills'. "It would amount to the treatment of unequals as equals and thereby violates Article 14 of the Constitution," the petition said.

The plea claimed that despite the test being held across India is multiple languages, the question paper in English was based on the CBSE syllabus, whereas the one in Tamil was based on the state syllabus. "Authorities never told the candidates who took up NEET that the question papers in different languages would not be the same and that they have the discretion to frame different set of questions in different languages," the petition claimed.

The aspirant's mother stated that the current evaluation system was contrary and in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. The petitioner sought an interim injunction against the declaration of results based on the NEET examination and sought a direction to cancel the test. She also sought a direction to re-conduct NEET with the same set of questions for all major languages in India.

OneIndia News