'No Tampering At NTA Office' : Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Alleging Discrepancies In NEET-UG Scores
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a writ petition filed by 6 students alleging tampering of their NEET-UG OMR scorecards by the National Testing Agency. The petitioners had approached the Court alleging that there was a huge variance in their marks computed on the basis of the answer keys and the final results.A bench comprising Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice AS Bopanna dismissed the...
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a writ petition filed by 6 students alleging tampering of their NEET-UG OMR scorecards by the National Testing Agency. The petitioners had approached the Court alleging that there was a huge variance in their marks computed on the basis of the answer keys and the final results.
A bench comprising Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice AS Bopanna dismissed the writ petition noting that the NTA had shown the OMR sheets to the candidates. The NTA's counsel Rupesh Kumar told the bench that the candidates were invited to the office of the NTA and were allowed to inspect the OMR sheets; the scanned copies of the OMR were sent to the email ids of the candidates as well. The OMR answer sheet of the petitioners is stated to have their original writing along with their and invigilator's sign, the Court noted.
The bench dismissed the petition saying "it cannot prima facie be suggested that there was any act of tampering or manipulation in the back office of NTA".
The bench also noted that out of 15.44 lakh candidates who appeared for the NEET-UG exam, only 6 have raised this grievance.
Senior Advocate Manoj Swarup, who appeared for the petitioners, submitted that they were not allowed to physically touch the OMR sheets as there was a glass wall in between.
"OMR sheet can only be verified by touching", the senior counsel submitted.
"This is quite far fetched...No Mr Swarup, they showed you the original", Justice Chandrachud remarked. It was the contention of the petitioners' counsel that the entire database relating to the exam was transferred to an outside agency, and there was likelihood of tinkering. However, the NTA said that the data was hosted in the servers of NIC.
Detailed Courtroom exchange
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 and drafted by Advocate Waseem Akhtar Khan.
Case Title: Prabhnoor Singh v NTA| WP(C) 1286/2021
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