The Supreme Court on Friday, July 4, in its order refused to entertain a petition — filed by a candidate, Shivam Gandhi Raina, of the NEET-UG exam — challenging the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2025 results due to an alleged error in one of the questions.

A two-judge bench of the top court, headed by Justice PS Narasimha and Justice R Mahadevan, refused to entertain the plea filed by Raina, and said, it can't deal with individual examinations, stated a report by The New Indian Express.

"We have dismissed identical matters. We agree there might be multiple correct answers. But we cannot interfere in an examination which is given by lakhs of candidates. It's not an individual's case. Thousands of students will be affected," said, the bench of the apex court, on its order on Friday.

A writ petition has been filed by a candidate — Shivam Gandhi Raina, who had appeared in the NEET-UG exam — before the Supreme Court on Thursday, July 3, challenging the final answer key and the result declared by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in the NEET-UG 2025 examination.

The petition in the top court filed by Raina alleged arbitrary errors and refusal to rectify despite valid academic objections. The plea of Raina claimed that there were violation of merit and career prospects on the prestigious exam.

The petitioner, Raina, sought direction to the NTA to correct the alleged error in the answer key as per the authoritative National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) texts and revise the results accordingly. The petitioner also sought stay of the counselling process as an interim relief.

He further alleged that there were manifest errors in the provisional answer key, which were not corrected by the NTA in its final answer key, despite the objections submitted by him.

During the course of the hearing, senior advocate, R Balasubramaniam, lawyer for Raina, argued that the Supreme Court had earlier interfered in the 2024 NEET-UG exam and ordered the correction of mistakes based on an expert report given by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.

"It is a matter affecting the career of the students. One mark difference will mean a lot. So many students are affected by his," Balasubramaniam submitted. He further sought a direction that the apex court should direct for constitution of an expert committee to ascertain the matter.

To this, the bench clarified that the Supreme Court's interference in 2024 was due to widespread grievances regarding the discrepancies and shortcomings in the conduct of the exam.

The top court, however, despite severe pursuance of Balasubramaniam refused to pass any order in the plea. "You may be right on principle that there could be multiple correct answers. Despite that, to interfere in an all-India exam at this stage, will create...," the bench said.

It is to be noted that the petitioner has secured an All India Rank (AIR) of 6783 and a General Category Rank of 3195. If the incorrect answer is corrected, the petitioner will get 5 more marks, improving his position, the petition stated, according to the report by The New Indian Express.