CBSE moves Supreme Court over order on NEET marks

In the NEET exam held on May 6, the question paper in Tamil had 49 erroneous questions. The results were announced on June 4.

The bench had on July 10 ordered the CBSE to grant 196 marks — four marks each for the 49 questions — in the Tamil version of the paper. CPM leader and MP TK Rangarajan, the petitioner, had sought full marks for the 49 questions, and said students were flummoxed due to wrong translation from English. A decision regarding this could have implications for 24,000 students and their seat allotment.

Passing the orders, the bench had directed the CBSE to consequently revise the list of eligible candidates and publish it afresh.

The judges said the students who wrote the NEET exam for admission to medical and dental colleges in Tamil should be suitably compensated to provide a level-playing ground.

The NEET exam bulletin had said “candidates opting for regional languages would be provided bilingual test booklets in selected regional languages and in English. In case of any ambiguity in translation of any of the questions, its English version shall be treated as final”. The CBSE could highlight this in its challenge.

Following the High Court order, the Medical Counselling Committee suspended the second round of counselling for All India Quota seats and would release the allotment list after the issue is resolved.

The NEET exam is conducted for admissions to MBBS/BDS courses in colleges run with the approval of Medical Council of India/Dental Council of India under the Health Ministry. In Tamil Nadu, about 1.07 lakh candidates wrote the exam across 170 centres in 10 cities.