NEET-UG 2024 | Is There Any Time Limit To Raise Grievances Against OMR Sheets? Supreme Court Asks NTA

Right at the outset of the proceeding, a Vacation Bench of Justices Manoj Misra and S.V.N. Bhatti said that the present writ petition has been filed at the instance of a coaching centre.

“This is a 32 petition by instance of a coaching centre. What Fundamental right of yours is violated?., asked Justice Misra.

Supplementing this observation, Justice Bhatti said “This is one of the reasons where we see this role played by the coaching centres, bagpipers. They have hardly any role to play. Their obligation and duty…if they have discharged their service that is the end of the matter. They have not undertaken to see that everything that Centre is supposed to do it will be taken care by them.”

Senior Advocate R Basant replied that the petitioners also included students who were supposed to be given the OMR sheets. Apprising his interim relief in the petition, he said that it is for obtaining the OMR sheets as some of the students have not been given the same yet. The NTA counsel countered this saying that the OMR sheets have been uploaded and given to the candidates. 

Following this, the Court inquired if there was any time limit for raising the grievance regarding the OMR sheets. "Normally in such matters if OMR sheets are uploaded and if there is any grievance, then there is a time limit." The NTA's Counsel said that he would check it up. However, Basant promptly submitted that no defined procedure exists to raise an objection.

Ultimately, the Court issued the notice and tagged it with similar petitions pending.

Under the scanner is the NEET-UG Examination 2024, an exam held by NTA on May 5 this year. Several petitions were filed before the Supreme Court and in high courts challenging this medical entrance exam.

The petitioners have called for judicial intervention into the alleged paper leak, award of grace marks against the time loss, and other irregularities/discrepancies that occurred during the conduct of the NEET-UG Examination.

Previously, the Court had refused to defer the counselling/seat allotment process, which is scheduled to begin on July 6. Besides this, the Court had also orally observed that the admissions will be subject to the final outcome of the petitions and if the exams are set aside, then the counselling also will get invalidated consequentially.

Imperatively, the court had also expressed concern over the alleged discrepancy that occurred in the conduct of the examination where it orally remarked that even '0.001% negligence' in conducting the NEET-UG 2024 exams be looked into with all seriousness considering the immense labor put in by the candidate for the prestigious examination.

In a related development, the Central Govt, on June 22, entrusted the matter of alleged irregularities in the NEET (UG) Examination 2024 to the CBI for investigation.

In an official press release, the Ministry of Education stated that “certain cases of alleged irregularities/cheating/impersonation have been reported” as regards the NEET UG exam held on May 5.

Apart from this, on June 23, a re-test was conducted for 1563 students who were awarded grace marks. However, as per the reports, only 813 (approximately 52%) took the test while others remained absent.

Case details: Xylem Learning Vs NTA., W.P.(C) No. 389/2024