NEET- UG | 'We Sympathize With Students, But Re-Test For Mix Up By Invigilator Is Difficult': Supreme Court Sets Aside HC Direction

A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai observed that while the Court sympathized with the plight of the two students, it was difficult to order a re-test for the two students.

Accordingly, the bench allowed the appeal filed by the National Testing Agency against the High Court direction. Earlier, the bench had stayed the High Court direction and allowed the NTA to declare the NEET-UG results, which were withheld in view of the High Court's order.

The bench noted in its order that the invigilator had admitted the mistake. The bench also found force in the submission of the counsel of the students that they lost precious time due to the mix-up. Further, the bench added that it could understand the mental stress of the young students while taking exam in such a situation.

"...though we sympathise with their cause, we find it difficult to direct re-xam for them alone. Therefore, we set aside the direction given by the High Court", the bench noted in the order.

Court room exchange today

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the NTA, submitted that the mix up happened in the case of 6 students. However, only two students have raised the issue before the court.

"Without consulting my client, I am submitting, principally we can have no objection in taking the re-exam, but the difficulty we see is that there is another petition before High Court after this order...for some reason, some mistake...there are 16 lakh candidates taking the exam every year ,and we are working through invigilators across the country, and there could be some mistakes somewhere, but if that becomes a cause for re-examination, it will be never ending", the SG submitted at the outset.

Advocate Sudhanshu Choudhuri appearing for the two students submitted that they are repeaters and came from humble background. He read out to the court the apology tendered by the invigilator, admitting the mix up.

"..the invigilators tender apology for mistake in distributing booklets to 6 students, test booklets fell down and got mixed with wrong OMR sheets, "we were doing duty for the first time, we assure this happened in hurry and not a deliberate mistake"-they said", the counsel submitted.

He submitted that the 2 students have excellent academic record and they cannot be made to suffer and that thy answered the remaining questions under stress.

The bench noted that the marks of the two students were computed as per the suggestion given by the NTA to the High Court that the scores will be calculated without insisting on the test booklet code and OMR sheet being different.

"There is no dispute that, there was a mix-up in the distribution of the answer sheets and the text booklets where the code is different. Realizing that wrong answer given to a question would attract negative marks and relying up on the instruction given to candidates, respondents 1 and 2 pointed out to the invigilator that the correct answer sheet with the proper code has to be given to them.

Background