The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Madras High Court order giving candidates who took the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) in Tamil a windfall of 196 marks after 49 questions that appeared in the Tamil translated version of the question paper were found to be erroneous.
Staying the July 10 order of the HC, the apex bench of Justices SA Bobde and lN Rao was stunned to see that although the maximum a candidate could score in the exam was 720 marks, by the addition of 196 marks, some students crossed the maximum marks limit which was totally unacceptable. Further, the bench noted that the HC arbitrarily awarded 4 marks for each of the 49 wrong questions, without taking into account that if attempted, the student could have given a wrong answer too, inviting negative marks.
The Court was of the view that while the problem was understandable, the solution cannot be accepted. The bench noted that had these students been given some grace marks allowing them to pass, the decision of the Court was acceptable. But by awarding 196 marks, the students who stood qualified for MBBS admission would be left out, for no fault of theirs. The Court issued notice to the students and the original petitioner who petitioned the Madras HC and posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.