The Supreme Court on October 28 said it cannot hold back the results of over 16 lakh students for two students and permitted the National Testing Agency to declare scorecards of the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to undergraduate medical courses across the country.
A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao, Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai stayed the Bombay High Court's recent order asking the NTA not to declare the NEET results and conduct re-examination for two aspirants whose question papers and OMR sheets had got mixed up at a centre in Maharashtra. Taking note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the NTA, the Bench said, “We will decide what happens to the two students upon reopening (after Diwali vacation). In the meanwhile, we issue notice and file a counter. But we cannot hold the results of 16 lakh students. We stay the High Court judgement. The National Testing Agency can announce the results.”
In an unprecedented order, the Bombay High Court on October 20 directed the NTA, set up in 2018 for conducting NEET for admission to undergraduate medical courses, to hold fresh exams for the two students and declare their results along with the main results of the test that was conducted on September 12. The High Court had taken note of the fact that the test booklet and OMR sheet of two medical aspirants — Vaishnavi Bhopali and Abhishek Shivaji — got mixed up at the examination centre before the start of the test and ordered that they be given a fresh opportunity to appear.
The NEET Entrance Exam was conducted for "16,14,777 candidates, involving 3,682 centres in 202 cities, 9,548 centre Superintendents/ Deputy Superintendents, 5,615 Observers, 2,69,378 Invigilators and 220 City Co-ordinators," the NTA said in the plea.
Counselling on hold until final decision on OBC reservation
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Vikram Nath and BV Nagarathna, which is hearing a group of petitions filed by NEET aspirants on the reservation quota of 27 per cent and 10 per cent for Other Backward Classes and Economically Weaker Sections respectively has adjourned the matter until after the Diwali vacations, to November 16. Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, appearing for the NTA had said that while the centre is in discussions with senior officials and those involved in deciding the quota and requested that the matter be postponed until after the Diwali vacation. The centre had filed an affidavit defending and justifying its move to set the Rupees 8 lakh annual income mark for both the categories, after an order from the Supreme Court. The NTA has assured that the counselling process will not commence until the decision is passed in this matter.
