Supreme Court dismisses plea seeking cancellation of question in NEET UG for missing a word in Hindi translation after expert committee says answer will not differ

A Supreme Court bench of Justices Chandrachud, Bopanna and Vikram Nath today dismissed a plea by NEET UG candidates seeking cancellation of question in the exam after Hindi translation missed a word. The court dismissed the plea after an expert committee constituted had concluded that the answer will not differ despite the missing word.

When the hearing for the case commenced, Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India submitted that a 3 member committee consisting of specialists from IIT Gauhati, Delhi Technological University and National Physical Laboratory to evaluate the problem. He submitted that the committee concluded that the answer will not differ from the English version of the question paper despite a word missing in the Hindi translation.

Archana Pathak Dave, advocate, appearing for the petitioners submitted that  physics text book of NCERT however has a different answer. The court declined her request to consider the matter further. Justice Chandrachud said “We would have done it had it been a question relating to law, this being physics we are constrained to draw a line.”

The court noted that the grievance of the petitioner relates to solutions of the Hindi and the English version of the NEET exam of 2021 and that having regard to the submission the answers to the same problem would vary based on the expression “amplitude of current” in Hindi version. The court further recorded that the SG  assured that the grievance of the petitioners would be evaluated by a group of 3 experts and a panel was subsequently constituted to evaluate the same. The court noted that the expert committee concluded that the answer for the question will not differ despite the missing word in the Hindi translation and that it would not be open for the court to substitute its view with that of the expert committee’s.

The court mentioned that Ms. Archana Pathak Dave has made an earnest endeavour to persuade this court. As the case was concluding, the SG said “ I don’t like to see the students losing this case milords, but the decision of the committee is against them.”

On the last date of hearing Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta told the Court that the experts are of the opinion that the answer to the question will not differ even if the word is absent. After hearing the various submissions, Court recorded the statement of the SG that a 3-member expert Committee will evaluate the question and directed that an affidavit be filed setting out the result of the evaluation.

The writ petition was filed by a group of NEET (UG) candidates who moved the Supreme Court seeking the deletion of a question in the Physics question paper and releasing of fresh results on the ground that there is a discrepancy while translating a question from English to Hindi, as a result of which they will lose their marks, causing a substantial tumble in ranks.

 

Cause Title: Wajda Tabbasum & Ors vs National Testing Agency & Ors