The Supreme Court of India has sought the response from Medical Council of India (MCI) and Supreme Court regarding the inclusion of Urdu in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) 2017 . Earlier, a plea was filed by Student Islamic Organisation (SIO) in Supreme Court seeking inclusion of Urdu in NEET.
On March 3, 2017, the apex court heard the plea and directed the Central government and MCI to give a response on the matter. The bench comprising of Justice R. Banumathi and Kurian Joseph directed MCI that it can include any language in NEET if the council gets a request from state governments.
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The bench also issued a notice to Dental Council of India (DCI) and CBSE or Central Board of Secondary Education to give a response on the plea by March 10, 2017. The Supreme Court will take up the hearing on the same on March 10, 2017.
The counsel representing Student Islamic Organisation (SIO) revealed that the state governments of Telangana and Maharashtra have requested the MCI to include Urdu in NEET as one of the mediums.
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Currently, NEET-UG 2017 will be conducted in ten languages that include Kannada, Oriya, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarat, Bengali, Assamese, English and Hindi.
Apart from the petitions on the inclusion of Urdu, there were other petitions filed in Supreme Court regarding age criterion and others.
The application process for NEET-UG 2017 closed on March 1, 2017. Now, the candidates have two months time to prepare for the examination, which will take place on May 7, 2017.