The apex court's decision comes as a welcome move as any delay in the results would have disrupted the admission process
Bringing relief and cheer to medical aspirants, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Madras High Court order and directed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to declare the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) results by June 26.
The apex court's decision comes as a welcome move as any delay in the results would have disrupted the admission process. Once the results are announced, the board will focus on counselling and admission of almost 12 lakh students who took the test in English and eight other vernacular languages.
However, the entire process after the results will be conditional to the SC's ruling on various petitions that are still pending before it. The court has also directed the high courts not to entertain any more petitions related to NEET.
"The high court should not have easily and liberally interfered with the schedule," a vacation bench comprising justices Prafulla C Pant and Deepak Gupta said responding to the high court's May 24 order.
In response to the court's ruling, the CBSE announced that it will open the results of NEET for challenge for two days before declaring the results.
"The images of OMR answer sheets and responses to the questions marked by the candidates who had appeared in National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (UG), 2017 will be displayed for challenges by the candidates only for two days instead of three days mentioned in the information bulletin," an official statement from the board read without announcing any specific day for the results.
The Madras HC had granted a stay on the results on a batch of petitions which stated that the test questions in the English language was different than those in the vernacular languages. According to the petitions, there was a vast difference in the difficulty level of the questions in different languages. Similar pleas were filed in different courts across the country which also sought for the May 7 tests to be scrapped and a fresh test to be held with uniform questions.
The CBSE had then approached the SC on June 9 seeking a stay on the May 24 order. However, representing the CBSE, Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh argued that though the question papers in the regional languages and English were different, the difficulty level was maintained.
The CBSE added that around 150,000 students had given the test in regional languages while the rest of the students chose English. On the different question papers, the CBSE had said that in the event there was a leak, the entire test would not be compromised and the damage would be limited.
The CBSE's NEET replaced a web of tests conducted for admissions to under-graduate medical (MBBS) and dental (BDS) courses as well as post-graduate (MD/MS) programmes in government and private colleges. Though, a few colleges created under separate laws still hold their unique tests, the NEET results are accepted by all.
- Display of OMR sheets will be open from June 13 to June 14 and students can challenge the responses based on the answers from June 15 on June 16. Candidates can check the scanned images of their OMR sheet and answer keys by logging into their account using their user ID (registration No.) and password on NEET's website.
- The board has also warned that the candidates who wrongfully challenge the responses will be liable to criminal action.
- The decision of the CBSE in the matter of challenges shall be final.
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