The Supreme Court will hear Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) plea for inclusion on Urdu in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test on March 31, the court said. Earlier it had refused to hear the plea. The Centre, however, said that it is not possible to include Urdu in NEET from this year. SIO,a student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami had contended that Urdu being excluded from NEET is discriminatory as it is the sixth most spoken language in India, before Assamese and Gujarati which are included. The Supreme Court had asked CBSE, Medical Council of India and its stakeholders to respond to the petition by March 10.
The Centre’s response was that Urdu can be included from next year, as this year the process of applications have ended and no state had approached it with this request during a meeting on November 16. The court then asked concerned parties to file their responses to this by March 22. SIO said that it filed the plea to include Urdu back in 2013, when the examination was held for the first time.
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On January 2017, SIO had filed a notification to inlcude Urdu in NEET which was addressed to Union Health Minister JP Nadda and Union Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javdekar and also to Maharashtra Health Minister Girish Mahajan to request Union Government to include Urdu, NDTV reported. On January 31, when NEET notification was released by CBSE, it did not include Urdu. SIO then filed the plea to Supreme Court.
With NEET one is eligible for admission to MBBS/BDS courses in India, in institutions such as AIIMS. It comes under Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.