New Delhi, April 13, 2017: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to conduct NEET examination in Urdu from academic year 2018-2019 onwards but ruled out holding the entrance exam in the language this year.

The bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar directed that NEET entrance exam be held in Urdu this year after CBSE told the court that it was extremely difficult to hold the exam in Urdu this year.

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"We direct the Union of India to include Urdu as a language in NEET examination from academic session 2018-19 onwards," the bench said in its order, which came on a petition by filed by the Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO).

The possibility of holding a supplementary exam for admission to the current academic year too was ruled out.

At present the NEET is conducted in English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Telegu, Tamil, Bengal, Oriya and Assamese.

It was in March this year that the top court had asked the Centre, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the Dental Council of India (DCI) to respond to a plea by the SIO for holding NEET examinations in Urdu also.

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The government on Thursday told the court that the brochure for NEET 2017-18 was issued in January and the SIO approached the court in the February thus, making it difficult for the language to be introduced this year.

"In the first hearing we had said that it will be difficult this year and we will do it from next year", Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told the court. (IANS)