NEET UG 2021 : Supreme Court To Hear Plea Alleging Rigging Of OMR Sheets, Discrepancy In Final Results On Jan 10

The Supreme Court today adjourned for Monday(January 10) a petition preferred by 6 aspirants who appeared in NEET UG 2021 challenging their marks and ranks secured in the test which was conducted on September 12, 2021 by the National Testing Agency.

The matter was listed before the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna.

When the matter was called for hearing, Justice DY Chandrachud the presiding judge of the bench asked Advocate Rupesh Kumar for NTA as to when would NTA file its reply.

Responding to the question posed by the bench, Advocate Kumar submitted that it had filed a reply already. He also sought court's permission to adjourn the matter for Monday.

"We've already filed the same. Can it be taken up on Monday," said Advocate Rupesh Kumar.

"We can keep it up on Monday. Till then I'll also read the reply. Mr Kumar, on Monday don't bring any Senior Counsel. We want you to argue," Justice DY Chandrachud remarked while adjourning the matter for Monday.

The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna had issued notice in the petition on November 29, 2021.

Details Of The Petition

It had been argued that there was a huge difference in the marks which the petitioners had calculated based on the answer keys published by the NTA and the final marks declared by them on November 1, 2021.

One of the petitioners allege that his score as per the answer key was 584 but the final result showed 164. According to another petitioner, his score based on the answer key was 675 but the final result showed 52 marks. Another petitioner's final score was zero, though his estimate as per the answer key was 545 marks.

"It appears that to be massive rigging in the screening of the OMR sheet soon after the publication of the answer keys and consequent uploading of OMR sheet for self assessment and before the actual declaration of result and score card on NTA's website which has resulted in glaring discrepancy in the marks obtained by the petitioners," the petition states.

Referring to the comparative tabulation of marks, the petitioners have contended that it is manifestly evident that there has been a huge margin in the scores obtained by them.

It has further been averred that something is utterly wrong on NTA's part which needs to be addressed by instituting investigations against the authority.

Petitioners in their petition have referred to the news for leaking the question paper and criminal conspiracy to sabotage the fair process of exam in regards to which several FIR's were registered at different places in India.

The sum and substance of the initial investigation in these FIR's had established rampant use of unscrupulous means and unfair practices to manipulate the results for benefiting the rich and non merit candidates, the petitioners have stated.

In light of this background it has been stated in the petition that,

"There are malpractices and corrupt practices which are undergoing on at the levels which the innocent, deserving and meritorious petitioners cannot imagine which has resulted in arbitrariness and rejection of meritorious candidates and as such is violative of their rights under Article 14 of the Constitution of India."

The petition was filed through Advocate on Record Rajan Kumar Singh.

Case Title: Prabhnoor Singh v NTA| WP(C) 1286/2021

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