NEET OMR issue: NTA denies tampering, Delhi HC may physically hear the issue

The Delhi High Court may physically hear a petition that alleged discrepancies in the OMR  sheets of 14 students who wrote NEET in 2020. The petition was heard by Justice Prateek Jalan.

The petitioners who challenged the National Testing Agency were represented by Senior Advocate Gopal Shankar Narayan and advocates Tanvi Dubey and Avishkar Singhvi. Alleging serious discrepancies in the OMR sheets, Singhvi said, "There is blatant and apparent tampering. This will not just affect the current batch, but also the future batch of students." He also sought that the court moulds its relief.

At the same time, representing the NTA, Senior Advocate Amit Bansal denied any discrepancy or tampering and said that allowing admission to these students in the next year will be unfair to the future NEET aspirants. The petitioners had previously alleged that the sheets provided by the NTA to them after a Supreme Court order have been tampered with. Some of them said that the OMR sheets handed over to them by the authorities were different from the ones that were uploaded on the NTA's website.

The petition will also seek to remove the existing fee of Rs 1,000 for every question challenged. It also sought a refund of Rs 91,000 to a parent who had challenged 91 questions in the OMR sheet of her daughter that was allegedly tampered with. The matter maybe next heard on March 15. Both parties are now asked to file rejoinders in the case.