The Supreme Court on Friday set aside a Bombay High Court order which had directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to hold fresh exams for two National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Under Graduate (NEET-UG) aspirants whose question papers and OMR sheets got mixed at a centre in Maharashtra.
A Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai said that though they sympathise with the two students it was difficult to order a re-examination for them alone.
The top court said that the invigilator had admitted the mistake and it has found force in the submission of the students that they lost precious time due to the mix-up and could understand the mental stress of the young students while taking the exam in such a situation, but it refused re-examination for them.
In its order, the apex court said, "Though we sympathise with their cause, we find it difficult to direct re-examination for them alone. Therefore, we set aside the direction given by the high court directing reexamination. The writ petition is dismissed."
The apex court was hearing an appeal filed by NTA challenging a High Court order which directed it to hold fresh exams for two NEET undergraduate aspirants.
Earlier, it had directed the NTA to declare the results of the NEET-UG courses for the year 2021 and stayed the High Court order which had directed the NTA to hold the declaration of results.
After two aspirants approached the Bombay High Court claiming that their test booklets and OMR sheets got mixed up during the NEET exam held on September 12, the High Court had asked NTA not to declare results.
The apex court had however said that NTA can announce NEET-UG results, adding that the issue raised by the two students can be examined but the results of 16 lakh students cannot be withheld due to that.
In the appeal of NTA in the top court had said that the effect of the High Court order is that NTA who has conducted the NEET-UG 2021 examination for more than 16 lakh candidates is not able to declare results even though the same is ready.
The two students had claimed before the High Court that when invigilators started distributing the test booklets, it fell down, and as a result the test booklets and the OMR sheets which the two candidates received, got mixed up.
Thereafter, the High Court had directed the NTA to re-examine the two candidates by conducting a separate NEET examination before the declaration of results.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor