An aggrieved parent from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, has taken the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), to court for publishing an answer key with an erroneous entry.

Dr Vinod Kumar Kesavan filed a writ petition before the Delhi High Court after his concerns were not addressed by NTA.

He alleged one of the solutions in the answer key for the Biology test was wrong. Despite complaints, NTA cleared the key and published the rank list. “Students who marked the correct answer lost five marks, including negative mark. If NTA corrects the error, it would alter the rank list drastically,” he said.

“Many parents share my concern. Deemed universities charge Rs 2 lakh for an application. There is no clarity on whether the money would be refunded if there are further changes,” said Vinod.

Several people, including parents, coaching institutes and doctors’ collectives have challenged the NEET rank list before the SC, alleging massive irregularities.

Dr Babu KV, a health activist part of the doctors’ collective, also alleged a massive cover-up on the part of NTA. Meanwhile, Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu informed the state assembly on Wednesday, June 12, that she had written to the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and secretary seeking a probe and strong measures over the alleged irregularities.