NEET-UG case: SC issues notice to NTA over OMR sheets
Senior advocate R Basant, appearing for the coaching institute and the candidates, submitted that a few students, who have appeared for the examination, have not got the OMR sheets
By : Rakesh K. Singh
Update: 2024-06-27 12:13 GMT
New Delhi: As protests continued over alleged irregularities in the NEET examination, the Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to the National Testing Agency (NTA) based on a petition filed by a learning app. The petition raised concerns, among others, that OMR sheets were not provided to some candidates and highlighted “inconsistent” calculation of marks. A vacation bench of Justices Manoj Misra and S.V.N. Bhatti tagged the matter with several other petitions scheduled for hearing on July 8.
Senior advocate R. Basant, appearing for the coaching institute and the candidates, submitted that a few students who appeared for the examination did not receive their OMR sheets.
The bench initially questioned Basant on how a private coaching institute could file an Article 32 petition in the Supreme Court and what kind of fundamental rights of the institution were affected.
Counsel for the NTA submitted that the OMR sheets had been uploaded on the website and provided to the candidates. The top court asked whether there was any time limit for raising grievances about the OMR sheets.
The NTA counsel stated that he needed to take instructions and sought the listing of the petition along with the pending matters. "We will file a short reply by then to the query," he said.
Basant pointed out that there was no set procedure or time limit to raise grievances and therefore, as interim relief, the candidates were seeking access to their OMR sheets.
The bench then issued a notice and tagged the petition with the pending matters, while asking the counsel for NTA to file a short written reply to the court's query on the time limit.
In the national capital, members of the National Students Union of India barged into the testing agency's office in Okhla, raising slogans of "shut down NTA". Over the past two weeks, allegations of irregularities in the medical exam have led to protests in several cities and sparring between rival political parties.
On June 20, the top court sought responses from the Centre, the NTA, and others on a slew of petitions, including those seeking the scrapping of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 and a court-monitored probe, amid mounting outrage over alleged irregularities in conducting the all-India medical entrance test.
While hearing separate pleas on the NEET-UG 2024, the apex court had on June 18 said that even if there was "0.001 percent negligence" on the part of anyone in conducting the examination, it should be thoroughly dealt with. It listed all the petitions for hearing on July 8.
The NEET-UG is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
The Centre and the NTA had on June 13 informed the top court that they had cancelled the grace marks given to 1,563 candidates who took the examination for admission to MBBS and other such courses. The Centre also said these candidates would have the option to either take a retest or forgo the compensatory marks awarded to them for the loss of time.
The examination was held on May 5 across 4,750 centres with around 24 lakh candidates appearing. The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the evaluation of the answer sheets was completed earlier.
As many as 67 students scored a perfect 720, unprecedented in the NTA's history, with six from a centre in Haryana's Faridabad figuring in the list, raising suspicions about irregularities. It has been alleged that grace marks contributed to 67 students sharing the top rank.