NEET UG 2021: Supreme Court Final Decision on Discrepancies

NEET UG 2021: Supreme Court Final Decision on Discrepancies

On Monday i.e. 10th January 2022, the Supreme Court finally gave its decision on the alleged rigging of OMR sheets and the resultant discrepancies in the NEET UG 2021 result. According to the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna, 

“It cannot be Prima Facie suggested that there was any act of tampering or manipulation in the back office of the NTA”

This brings closure to the case that had not seen the light of day since the release of the NEET-UG 2021 result on November 1st, 2021.

What the Petition was About?

In November 2021, a collective of 6 students moved to the apex court against the National Testing Agency (NTA), alleging “massive rigging” in the OMR sheets and eventual result. They filed a Writ Petition challenging the marks and rank list released saying that,

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

The main discrepancy highlighted was that the OMR sheets shown to the students at the Noida office of the NTA were glaringly different from that which they received in their e-mails. This also led to discrepancies between the marks that students calculated after the answer key was out and the ones that were eventually released by the NTA.

When students asked for the carbon copy of the agency’s OMR Sheet, they were told that the process would take 2 months and couldn’t be given on the spot.

Such discrepancies in the scores were even seen by candidates other than the 6 who filed the petition.

No Tampering/Discrepancies 

A senior NTA official, Was consulted n this matter for a statement, to which he said that 

“Our systems are foolproof. Such malpractices are not possible. Students often are so stressed and burdened because of the pressure that they end up lying to their parents about their performance. Then, these parents start filing complaints and moving the courts with PILs.” 

Furthermore, the agency had also opened a window on its official website for candidates to view the scanned NEET-UG 2021 OMR sheets. This is primarily what influenced the Supreme Court’s decision to rule it in the NTA’s favor.

For more updates on the latest developments related to the educational sector, keep following https://www.mbbsadmissionabroad.in/news