NEET results: The Supreme Court on Friday said that it cannot direct the NTA to hold fresh exams for two NEET undergraduate aspirants whose question papers and OMR sheets got mixed at a centre in Maharashtra. The court set aside a Bombay High Court order which had directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to hold fresh exams.
The high court last month had directed the NTA, which conducts entrance test for admissions to undergraduate medical courses, to hold a fresh exam for the two students — Vaishnavi Bhopale and Abhishek Shivaji — and declare their results along with the main results of the test conducted on September 12.
However, the NTA filed an appeal in the apex court and said that the exam was conducted for more than 16 lakh candidates and due to the high court's order it has not been able to declare their results even though the same is ready for declaration.
The agency further said that the delay in declaration of result will affect and further delay the subsequent process of admission to Undergraduate Medical Courses i.e. MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BSMS, BUMS, and BHMS Courses.
Hearing the matter today, the apex court said though it sympathised with their cause, it would be difficult to direct re-examination for two students alone.
"We have perused the results of respondents no 1 and 2 (students) and the marks given to them. They have attempted most of the questions. Though we sympathise with their cause, we find it difficult to direct re-examination for them alone. Therefore, we set aside the direction given by the high court directing reexamination. The writ petition is dismissed," a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai said.
The NEET UG entrance exam was conducted on September 12 for 16,14,777 candidates, involving 3,682 centres in 202 cities.
