NEET-UG 2024 | Supreme Court Asks NTA To Decide Plea By Candidate Afflicted By Medical Condition To Appear For Re-Test

In a plea filed by a NEET-UG 2024 candidate afflicted with hyperhidrosis, the Supreme Court today directed the National Testing Agency to take a decision on his request to appear in the re-test scheduled for June 23 and instructed that the decision be informed to the petitioner-candidate by 4 PM today itself.

The vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti, while issuing notice and giving NTA two weeks' time to file reply to the petition, ordered:

"In the meantime, the NTA will take a decision on the representation of the petitioner today before 4 PM and communicate the same to the petitioner by email and [...] proof of such email being sent along with their response".

The case pertained to a NEET-UG 2024 candidate who appeared at an exam centre in Hyderabad. He claimed that he had sent certain requests to the NTA but no response was forthcoming. As such, he filed a writ petition before the Telangana High Court and during the hearing of the same, the NTA counsel made a statement that the petitioner's representation would be decided (by evening of the hearing day). Accordingly, the petition was dismissed as withdrawn. But even till date, the petitioner has not received any response from NTA.

In support of the case, the petitioner's counsel informed the Supreme Court that the petitioner is suffering from hyperhidrosis, a condition in which he cannot hold a pen for more than 5 minutes at length, because he sweats a lot. It was alleged that the petitioner had made a request to the NTA, with proper medical certificate, to be allowed to carry a handkerchief inside the exam centre, but the same was not allowed.

"When he started writing the exam, his hand...he could not hold his pen properly throughout the exam. He made a mistake in the OMR sheet because his hand was sweating and the OMR sheet also got...", the petitioner's counsel urged.

On a specific query, the petitioner's counsel informed the court that the petitioner was not one of the candidates who appeared at the 6 centres where loss/shortage of time was reported. When the bench asked if any other candidate from the petitioner's centre had raised a grievance regarding time shortage, the counsel replied that he was not aware.

Ultimately, the bench was of the view that the petitioner's case raised a different issue (compared to other petitions raising grievances with respect to the NEET-UG exam). Accordingly, the order was passed.

The matter is next listed on July 8.

The re-test is scheduled for 1563 candidates who had suffered shortage of time at certain exam centres. The NTA revoked its decision to grant them grace marks to compensate for the loss of time and gave them the re-test option.

Counsel for petitioner: AoR Tanmay Yadav

Counsel for respondent-NTA: Advocate Vardhaman Kaushik

Case Title: SRIKAR TALLURI Versus NATIONAL TESTING AGENCY AND ORS., Diary No. 27511-2024