Thu. Mar 28th, 2024
Bombay High CourtIndia Legal

Synopsis: The petitioner claimed that in the SSC Examination, she scored 93.4%, in the HSC exam 81.85% and in the NEET exam she expected to score about 650 out of 720.

On Monday, in a plea moved by a NEET aspirant seeking directions from the Court for the manual evaluation of her OMR sheet, the Bombay High Court issued a notice to the National Testing Agency and the Union Ministries of Health.

The notice was issued by Justices AS Chandurkar and NB Suryawanshi of the Nagpur Bench of the High Court.

NEET Examination
India Today

The student urged the Court, through Advocate Ashwin Deshpande, to direct the authorities to produce her NEET OMR sheet and to have it evaluated manually. Her claim stems from an apprehension that the OMR sheet’s faulty online testing mechanism has led to her scoring 0 marks out of 720.

The High Court observed, referring to the judgement of the Supreme Court in Ran Vijay Singh & ors v. State of Uttar Pradesh & ors, that it was “conscious of the law in this regard,” and therefore a reply was sought from the respondents.

In matters of present nature, the Court is aware of the scope available for intervention. It is possible to refer to the law in this regard as set out in Ran Vijay Singh and others Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and others (2018) 2 SCC 357 and, in particular, paragraph 30 thereof. Prima facie, a response from the respondents is expected, given the fact that the petitioner has been awarded zero marks.

The plea notes that, having scored 93.4% in the SSC examination and 81.85% in the HSC examination, the petitioner has an outstanding academic record.

NTA uploaded the OMR sheet submitted by the candidates prior to the results of NEET so that they are given the opportunity to represent their OMR sheets on gradation. They have also been given the opportunity to challenge the answer key in case of any doubt. This option was given as the NEET examinations do not have a re-checking or revaluation system.

The petitoner claimed that her OMR sheet have also not been uploaded. She did not receive a response from them even though she sent a representation to NTA. The plea alleges, that the petitioner expected approximately 650 plus marks out of 720, which means that she will be eligible for admission to the MBBS Course at any of the State Medical College of Maharashtra.

The plea claims that the OMR sheet of the applicant may not have been adequately scanned or there may be some problem in the system or it can not be ruled out that her OMR sheet has been shared with some other nominee.

Subsequently, the petitioner urged the Court to order the respondents to refrain from continuing with the admission process until the decision in the present petition has been made.

A notice of final disposal of the matter was issued, for 26th October.