New Delhi, April 13: The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to include Urdu as an additional medium for students taking the entrance exam for undergraduate medical and dental courses from the next academic year.

The court, however, warned the petitioner, the Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO), of "consequences" if it failed to justify its allegation that the BJP-led Centre was discriminating against the language.

The organisation had alleged that although students had been allowed to write the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in Kannada and Odiya this year, Urdu had not been allowed as the minority community predominantly spoke the language.

"There are very serious allegations that all government servants are working against the community. Withdraw the allegations or you may have to face consequences," Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, one of the judges on the bench that also had Justices Dipak Misra and M. Santanagoudar told advocate Ravindra S. Garia appearing for the SIO.

The judge issued the warning after solicitor-general Ranjit Kumar took exception to the affidavit filed by the organisation accusing the Centre of discriminating against Urdu.

Students can write the NEET in English, Hindi, Telugu, Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Kannada and Odiya.

According to the petitioner, only Kannada and Odiya were allowed although the Centre had received requests for the inclusion of the two languages and Urdu in the NEET before the January 16 deadline for such requests ended. The exam will be held in May.

"It is deliberate on the part of the health ministry of the Government of India to not include Urdu as a medium for the NEET because of the discriminatory perception of government functionaries of viewing the language (as) not a part of the cultural heritage and composite culture of India...," the petition said.

The petition accused government officials of being "prejudiced" against Urdu.

The SIO also alleged that Urdu had been "deliberately omitted" by the Union health ministry and officials concerned "solely with a view to discriminate against the students studying in Urdu medium and also because a large number of students from the minority community traditionally and culturally are more inclined to pursue studies" in the language.

As advocate Garia refused to withdraw the observations, Justice Misra, heading the bench, posted the matter for further hearing in July. The court directed the Centre to ensure that from the next academic year, Urdu is made an optional language for students to write the NEET.

The SIO petition had said Urdu ranked sixth among languages in India in terms of people speaking it, according to the 2010 census.

The organisation had pointed out that Urdu had been accorded official language status in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi.