Supreme Court To Hear SIO Plea For Inclusion Of Urdu In NEET Exam Today

New Delhi:  The Supreme Court of India will hear the plea on inclusion of Urdu as one of the languages for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). A petition was earlier filed by Students Islamic Organization of India (SIO), a student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind requesting that Union government should include Urdu also as a medium in which NEET exam is to be conducted. SIO had pleaded that the decision to exclude Urdu was unfair and discriminatory for students who complete their higher secondary education in Urdu.

The court had asked the central government, CBSE, Medical Council of India (MCI) and other stakeholders to respond to the plea by March 10. SIO had contended that Urdu is the sixth most spoken language in the country, spoken by more people than Gujarati and Assamese which are included in the list of languages in which NEET will be conducted.

The central government in its reply to the court's queries had earlier said that it was open to conducting NEET in Urdu but it could be added only from next year since the application process for this year had already ended. It had also said that no state had approached it with request for holding NEET in Urdu when a meeting was held on November 16, 2016 with state ministers. The bench then gave the center and other concerned parties time till March 22 to file their responses in the court. 

SIO had made a plea to include Urdu as medium of examination to the central government back in 2013 also when the NEET exam was conducted for the first time. Since the exam was discontinued and was reintroduced only in 2016, the matter remained unresolved. In 2013, the NEET exam was conducted on May 5, in 8 different languages which did not include Urdu. 

Here's the timeline of events so far:

January 2017: SIO files an online petition addressed to Union Health Minister JP Nadda and Union Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javdekar for inclusion of Urdu.
Following the plea by SIO, Maharashtra Health Minister Girish Mahajan also requests Union Government to include Urdu.
CBSE releases NEET 2017 notification on January 31. Urdu is not included.
February 2017: SIO files a petition in Supreme Court of India. 
Supreme Court lists SIO plea for hearing on March 3.
March 3, 2017: Supreme Court asks CBSE, central government, MCI and other parties involved to respond to the pleas and lists the matter for hearing on March 10.
March 10, 2017: Center submits its response and says that it is open to conducting NEET in Urdu from next year.

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