The National Medical Commission (NMC) on March 9 removed the upper age limit for eligibility to write the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission into undergraduate medical courses in the country. The NMC, in a letter addressed to the Office of the Senior Director, National Testing Agency (NTA) has asked for the information bulletin for the NEET UG exam to be amended accordingly.
The Secretary of the NMC, Dr Pulkesh Kumar, in the letter said, "I would like to inform that it has been decided in the fourth NMC meeting held on October 21, 2021, that there should not be any upper age limit for appearing in the NEET-UG examination. Further, the process for the official notification to suitably amend the Regulation for Graduate Medical Education, 1997 to this effect has been initiated."
On February 1, the Supreme Court had asked the NMC to clarify if the Commission was considering removing the upper age limit for the NEET UG exam. The petition in the case was filed in 2018, and has been in the court since then. It was the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) that had set the upper age limit in the year 2017 at 25 years for candidates looking to appear for the NEET-UG exam. However, a five year relaxation had been given for the students from the SC,ST and OBC communities.
