NEET- UG 2021 : Plea In Supreme Court Seeks Deletion Of A Question From Physics Section For Alleged Discrepancy In Hindi Translation

A writ petition has been filed challenging the question paper and the answer key, alleging "discrepancy and patent error" in Question No 2 of Section A (Physics) wherein while translating the same from English to Hindi, the word "amplitude of current" has been omitted.

It has been argued that due to the said omission, the candidates who attempted the question on the basis of the Hindi translation arrived at a different answer as compared to the candidates who attempted the question on the basis of the English question.

The petitioners, who appeared in NEET UG 2021, have contended that pertinently, both the incorrect as well as correct answer had been provided as an option to the said multiple choice questions.

In this regards, relief has been sought for issuance of directions to the National Testing Agency ("Respondent No 1") to delete Question 2 of Section A (Physics) in question paper bearing code P2 and its corresponding questions in other sets of the NEET UG 2021 question papers and release fresh results.

"The NTA without taking cognizance of the said error, released an answer key only on the basis of the English translation of the question, thereby putting the Hindi-speaking candidates at disadvantageous position vis--vis their English-speaking counterparts. The said disparity was based upon the practice of the NTA to only treat the English version of the questions as final. The question paper carried an instruction to the said effect stipulating that "In case of any ambiguity in translation of any question, English version shall be treated as final.", however, there was no ambiguity in the impugned question and the same was an error, because the English version and the Hindi version both were different questions which had different answers," the petition states.

The petitioners have also averred that the Hindi and the English version of the impugned Question were in itself complete standalone questions, which led to the Hindi-speaking candidates to believe that the impugned question was without any ambiguity and could be solved without a reference to its corresponding English version.

"However, as the term "amplitude" was omitted in the Hindi version of the question, a different formula had to be applied by the Hindi-speaking students. Remarkably, if the impugned Question is attempted in English, the amplitude of the current flowing had to be taken into consideration, thus, arriving at option (1) as the answer. On the contrary, if the same Question was attempted in Hindi, the omission of the term "amplitude" would result in the candidate applying a different formula, in consonance with the concept prescribed and taught in NCERT textbook, to solve the same, thus, arriving at option (3) as the answer," petition further states.

It has further been contended that that impugned question carried 4 marks and one wrong answer was in fact loss of 5 marks since NEET has negative marking.

"Hence discrepancy in the said question has put the Hindi Speaking students/states at a disadvantageous position pushing them back by thousands of years and jeopardizing their future," petitioners have contended.

The petition has been filed through Advocate on Record Archana Pathak Dave and drafted by Advocate(s) Kumar Prashant and Manish Sharma.

A bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud will consider the petition tomorrow.

Case Title: Wajida Tabassum and Ors v. National Testing Agency and Anr