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The Delhi High Court in a recent order has directed the deletion of an incorrect question framed in the Foreign Medical Graduation Examination (FMGE December 2020) and awarded one extra mark to those candidates who were assessed as having answered it incorrectly.

The single Judge bench of Justice Prateek Jalan has further directed that and  any candidate achieving the passing score of 150 marks, shall be treated as having passed the FMGE (December 2020).

The order was passed on a petition filed by Association of MD Physicians seeking a direction to the National Board of Examination to award full marks for the technically incorrect/ erroneous/ blurred questions that formed a part of the question paper for the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination conducted on December 4, 2020 to all candidates who appeared in the said exam.

The petitioner’s claim of one extra mark was based on the contention that one of the questions in the examination had no correct answer and was therefore a patently erroneous question. In the writ petition, the petitioner had reproduced the disputed question as follows:-

“Question: Sample Registration System gives information about all except: a. Birth rate b. Death rate c. Maternal Mortality rate d. Infant mortality rate”

The NBE stated that the correct answer to the above question is option (c). Parties agree upon the fact that the Sample Registration System mentioned in the aforesaid question, refers to a system which has been established by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India [hereinafter, “RGI”] under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India and is administered by the Vital Statistics (SRS) Division of the RGI.

The results of the FMGE (December 2020) were declared on December 18, 2020. The petitioner addressed a representation dated January 12, 2021 to the NBE and to the Government of India, inter alia raising the contention that the disputed question was technically incorrect, as the SRS in fact, gives information about all the four parameters mentioned viz. Birth Rate [hereinafter, “BR”], Death Rate [hereinafter, “DR”], Maternal Mortality Rate [hereinafter, “MMR”] and Infant Mortality Rate [hereinafter, “IMR”].

However, the NBE issued a notice dated 16.01.2021, clarifying that the result declared by it was final and that it had been declared after “necessary checks including post exam review of the question paper by subject matter experts”.

Thereafter the petitioner approached the High Court.

On the question as to whether the Court had jurisdiction of the said plea, the Court referring to various judgements said "The aforesaid authorities clearly stipulate that the jurisdiction of the Court in academic matters, where the answer provided by an examining authority is challenged by a candidate, is extremely limited.The Court is not an expert in the universe of subjects examined at various levels, and must unhesitatingly defer to the view taken by expert examiners. However, none of the judgments cited prohibit judicial review altogetherThey do leave open a window for challenge, albeit a very small one, in the event that the candidate discharges the onus of showing that a question is patently erroneous."

The Court thereafter  examined the affidavit filed on behalf of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RGI) on the question of whether the Sample Registration System includes or does not include Maternal Mortality Ratio.

The Court observed that the affidavit  clearly stated that Sample Registration System includes Maternal Mortality Ratio.

The NBE however contended that the views of the RGI cannot be taken into consideration over the views of experts in the subject of Community Medicine, as the RGI is not an expert in Community Medicine, nor in the conduct of a specialized examination such as the FMGE.

The Court however observed that the disputed question is about the SRS, not about any other aspect of Community Medicine. The SRS is established and published by the RGI. To say that the RGI is not an expert in Community Medicine is therefore, neither here nor there. The RGI is certainly an expert on the question of what is and what is not part of the SRS.

The Court for the aforesaid reasons held that the petitioner had discharged the onerous burden of showing that the answer stipulated by the NBE was patently incorrect.

 

Case Title: Association of MD Physicians vs National Board of Examinations

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