NEET 2017: From age, attempt cap to dress code issue, all you need to know

Here is a timeline of the changes that has affected the NEET entrance this year 2017 :

Monday, May 8, 2017

___

Sunday, May 7, 2017

The NEET 2017 exam was conducted with 11,38,890 students students appearing for the paper at 1921 exam centres in 103 cities across India. Though the examination was conducted smoothly and there were no reports on paper leaks, the strict security arrangements triggered controversy when a girl in Kerala was asked to remove her top inner wear in order to be allowed inside the exam hall.

The CBSE had included a list of rules, prohibited items and a dress code in its information bulletin for the exam, but many of the candidates were unaware of the same. This lead to the ripping of sleeves, pulling off of jeans buttons and removal of ornaments and footwear before the exams, which angered many students, parents and political parties (especially Tamil Nadu’s DMK).

Read | Female NEET candidate in Kerala asked to remove innerwear

___

Thursday, April 13, 2017

The Supreme Court directed the Centre to include Urdu in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) from next session 2018-19. The language was not be included in the NEET 2017 exam as the exam was scheduled to be held on May 7, which was less than a month away.

___

Saturday, April 1, 2017

The Supreme Court allowed medical aspirants above 25 years to sit for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) to be held on May 7. The Court has directed the CBSE, conducting body, to open the online portal so that all petitioners and non-petitioners can apply for the entrance exam.

Story continues below this ad

Read | NEET 2017: Age cap of 25 years removed, CBSE online registration portal open

___

NEET 2017: The Supreme Court allowed medical aspirants above 25 years to sit for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) to be held on May 7.

Friday, March 3, 2017

The Supreme Court has sought a response from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Centre on Friday for the case of including Urdu as a medium for NEET 2017. A petition was filed, earlier, by the Student Islamic Organisation (SIO) regarding this.
The bench asked the organisation to file a notice. This comes after the Medical Council of India (MCI) said that it was open to include any language if a request is made by the states. The matter will be heard again at court on March 10.
The official notification stated that the exam will be held in ten languages including Hindi, English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya and Kannada.
Petitions have also been filed at High Courts and the Supreme Court regarding the age and attempt criteria.
__

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E K Palaniswami on Tuesday met the Union Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to talk about the issue of NEET 2017. He asked for a ratification from the state government to exempt students of Tamil Nadu from NEET.

Read | NEET 2017: All you need to know about the age, Aadhar card and other details

__

Tuesday, February 27, 2017

The Centre received a request of assent from Tamil Nadu to exclude students of the state from NEET 2017.
“We have asked the Centre to ratify a legislation that has been passed in TN Assembly exempting TN from NEET,” Tamil Nadu CM E K Palaniswami said.

On the same day, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) wrote to Health Education Minister Girish Mahajan asking for an increase in exam centres in Maharashtra, which has over 2.5 lakh students appearing for the NEET 2017. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has allocated centres in only six cities— Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Nashik and Thane. This is an improvement from last year when the exam was conducted in only four cities across the state.

__

Thursday, February 23, 2017

The Supreme Court heard a petition filed on the age criteria for NEET 2017. The plea demanded that the government take back the age cap as it makes thousands of candidates ineligible to apply. (See February 17)
The court, however, refused to hear the matter of including Urdu as a medium for NEET. A senior associate of Students Islamic Organisation of India, Mohammad Ali Sheikh, said at a recent press conference that the move to not include Urdu was unjust. (see March 3)

__

Monday, February 20, 2017

Andhra Pradesh Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas met Union Health Minister J P Nadda to urge for lower cut-off score in the NEET exam to facilitate qualification of more students from the state. Srinivas also requested a NEET exam centre in Tirupati to facilitate students in Rayalaseema region.

__

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Tamil Nadu’s DMK MP, Tiruchi Siva, met PM Narendra Modi to seek his intervention in getting the President’s assent to exempt students of the state from NEET 2017.
“NEET would be held on the standards of CBSE syllabus which would benefit only urban students. At a time when political situation in TN is in stalemate, M K Stalin has taken up the issue as the NEET exam dates are fast approaching,” Siva said.
“NEET will definitely disrupt the interests of the rural students who aspire to become doctors. While the need for brilliant doctors cannot be faulted, it is equally important to have barefoot doctors to provide medical services in rural areas to have effective public health care system,” leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu Assembly M K Stalin said.

Also read | NEET 2016 analysis: How to prepare for NEET 2017

__

Friday, February 17, 2017

The Supreme Court issued notice to Union government and the Medical Council of India seeking their reply on the age criteria for NEET 2017. A petition was filed demanding the the government to take their order back on the age limit where a candidate over 25-year-old cannot sit for the medical entrance exam. The Court asked the the MCI to file their counter reply on this issue by February 23.
As per the petition, the new age criteria limit is not supported by any appropriate regulation or procedure prescribed by the regulations framed under the MCI Act.

__

Thursday, February 16, 2017

The Allahabad high court sought a reply from the Medical Council of India (MCI), the Centre and the CBSE on the procedure adopted for setting of the upper age limit. This order was passed on February 15 by a division bench in Lucknow. The Court was hearing two writ petitions raising a common question relating to the issue of upper age limit of 25 years prescribed for NEET 2017.

__

Wednesday, Feb 15, 2017

Tamil Nadu CM V Narayanasamy said he had requested the Centre to exempt Puducherry from NEET based selection of students for medical colleges during the 2017-2018 academic year.
“We will not be able to accept NEET based selection as schools in the Union Territory are not fully equipped to adopt the CBSE syllabus, which is the criterion for NEET based selection for medical courses”, Narayanasamy said. He added that he would reiterate the plea during his coming visit to Delhi and meeting with the Union Health Minister.

__

Friday, February 10, 2017

The Supreme Court heard a petition to roll back the age criteria for NEET or undergraduate courses.

A petition to roll back the age criteria for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate courses has been filed in the Supreme Court on Friday. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s decision to introduce age and attempt cap for NEET has students up in arms across Bihar.
According to the guidelines, a candidate can appear only thrice for NEET and his age should not be over 25 years. Students who have been preparing for the entrance exam are unhappy with the decision.
Earlier, medical aspirants who have already given AIPMT and NEET 2016 over three times were notified ineligible to appear for the entrance examination. However, on February 3, the authorities clarified the NEET 2017 will be counted as first attempt for all the candidates, irrespective of their previous attempts in AIPMT/NEET.

__

Friday, February 10, 2017

Gujarat Health and Medical Education Minister Shankar Chaudhary said the state government dropped Gujarat Common Entrance Test (GUJCET) and all admissions in medical courses would be done on the basis of merit in NEET only.
Till last year, admissions to MBBS and BDS courses were done on the basis of merit in NEET, while admissions to ayurvedic, homoeopathic and naturopathy courses done on merit through GUJCET.
The minister said that the candidates don’t need to appear in NEET for admission to these courses optometry, audiology and speech therapy, and para-medical courses like nursing and physiotherapy. Admissions for these would be done on merit prepared on the basis of marks obtained by candidates in their Class XII exams.

__

Saturday, February 4, 2017

The CBSE said that appearance in NEET-2017 will be considered as the first attempt for all candidates. It added that the attempts made by candidates for the AIPMT/NEET prior to 2017 will not be counted.
“It has been clarified by MCI that the attempts made by candidates for AIPMT/NEET prior to 2017 should not be counted and accordingly appearance in NEET-2017 will be counted as first attempt for all the candidates, irrespective of their previous attempts,” the CBSE statement read.

__

Saturday, February 4, 2017

CBSE added Oriya and Kannada to the list of medium languages in which NEET 2017 will be conducted. Previously, the examination for post graduate and under graduate courses was to be held in eight languages — Hindi, English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu. A petition was also filed, last month, to include Urdu as a medium.

__

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

CBSE introduced limits to age and number of attempts for candidates appearing for NEET 2017. It said that candidates can now only attempt the paper three times. It also added that candidates cannot be older than 25 years (30 years for reserved category) to be eligible for the paper.

For more stories on NEET 2017, click here