AADHAR DETAILS NOT MANDATORY TO WRITE NET:
AADHAAR NOT MANDATORY FOR ANY NATIONAL ENTRANCE EXAM, FOR NOW:
☛ New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said unique identification number Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory for any national entrance examination for now.
☛ The interim order was passed by a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra in a challenge to making the 12-digit number mandatory for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2018 for admission to medical courses.
☛ The court said other forms of identification such as voter ID, passport or ration card can be used to register for or appear in the coming NEET. The last date to submit applications for NEET conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is 9 March.
☛ This means even a candidate who has Aadhaar is not required to produce it for appearing in national entrance tests like NEET.
☛ Apart from sparing NEET candidates from mandatorily furnishing Aadhaar, the interim order also prohibits CBSE, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) from making the unique number mandatory for examinations like Joint Entrance Exam (JEE-Main) and National Eligibility Test (NET) and the Common Admission Test held by Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
☛ The court also directed the centre to inform CBSE to follow the order and upload it on its website so that students are better informed. Currently, CBSE is the test delivery partner for most national entrance tests, including JEE-Main, NEET, UGC-NET and Central Teacher Eligibility Test.
☛ Earlier this year, CBSE had issued notifications making Aadhaar must for appearing in several national entrance tests.
☛ “The use of Aadhaar for applicants of UGC-NET(July) 2018 will result in accuracy of applicants’ details. This will also help ascertain identities of applicants at the examination centres in a convenient and hassle-free manner,” CBSE had said in one of its notifications dated 23 February, justifying the use of Aadhaar.
☛ When the announcement for NET was released, it was mentioned that Aadhar card details will be mandatory. However, a lot of objections were raised for this. Subsequently, NTA has announced that Aadhar is not mandatory.
☛ Instead, it has mentioned that any one of the passport number, PAN card number, Bank Savings account number or the ration card detail can be furnished.
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