The Honourable Supreme Court of India has directed the Centre to include Urdu as a language in NEET from the session 2018-19. The court further added that the language cannot be added this year as the exam is scheduled to be conducted on May 7, 2017.
The Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) had appealed the court to include Urdu as a language medium for NEET 2017. SIO had filed an affidavit saying that the government had not included Urdu as a language medium for NEET 2017 because they are communal and biased against Muslims.
Earlier, the Centre had stated that they will include Urdu from 2018 but the language cannot be part of the NEET 2017 exam this year as there is not enough time for implementation. The Supreme Court has stated that the final verdict will be announced at the end of this month.
In a reply to the affidavit filed by the SIO, the Central Government denied the allegations and said that had not been prejudiced against any religion or language. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare filed an affidavit stating in the apex court that multiple languages were introduced so that the students of different regions could appear for the exam in the language of their preference.
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Ten languages were included for NEET 2017 after consulting with the governments of all the states, the ministry informed. These languages include Hindi, English, Marathi, Gujarati, Odiya, Tamil, Telegu, Bengali, Kannada and Assamese.
The ministry also informed that the proposal to add Urdu as a language in NEET 2017 was made after the decision regarding languages was taken by the Centre.
Also Read: SIO alleges Govt. to be Biased against Muslims; Seeks NEET 2017 in Urdu
SIO had said that the Centre was deliberately not including Urdu in the national-level medical exam as they didn’t consider it to be a part of the national and cultural heritage India but associate it with Muslims.