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The Supreme Court on Friday scrapped petitions filed by a group of National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) aspirants who had sought the top court's direction to quash a Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) notification regarding age limits for the entrance examination.

The petition was filed after the CBSE fixed the upper age limit for aspiring medical candidates under the general category at 25 years and that of the reserved category at 30 years. The students have been told to approach concerned high courts.

The NEET aspirants contended that the age restriction was not a condition for students appearing for the entrance exams of other medical colleges like Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The petition read...

In almost all developed countries such as USA, Canada, UK and most of European Union, Australia etc. there is no upper age limit for studying medicine course if the student is otherwise competent to undertake medicine courses.

Therefore, there is no rationale behind the decision as to why a candidate above the age of 25 years is not competent to take medicine courses in India.

Similarly, there is no upper age limit for pursuing engineering and law courses and the reputed IITs and NLUs have not provided for any upper-age limit for admission.

CBSE had issued a notification describing all the details earlier this month. It had mentioned that candidates must have completed 17 years of age on or before December 31, 2018, — which means candidates born on or before January 1, 2002.

Lawyer Amit Kumar represented the students and urged the top court to stay the decision terming it to be illegal and arbitrary, the Times of India reported.

How the social media reacted? 

Social media observed mixed reactions from the students. While a few took on Twitter for clarity on the SC's decision, an RTI activist and a doctor said that a decision on the fresh petition is yet to be made. Here are some tweets:

The group of medical aspirants, who seek to write NEET 2018, also recalled an earlier stay order by the SC through which the regulations by Bar Council of India (BCI) were put on stay.

As per the BCI norms, the maximum age-limit for taking admission to law courses is 20 years for the integrated course and 30 years for a 3-year course. The court had also stressed that there isn't any rationality in fixing the age limit.

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