Plea filed in Supreme Court seeking deletion of a question of NEET UG on the ground that Hindi translation missed a word
A group of NEET (UG) candidates have 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.
According to the petition filed through AoR Archana Pathak Dave, the petitioners are young aspiring doctors belonging to the Hindi speaking belt.
They have challenged the question paper and the answer key on the ground of discrepancy and patent error in Question No. 2 of Section- A (Physics) wherein while translating the question to Hindi, the word “amplitude of current” has been omitted.
The petition claims that on account of this discrepancy, the candidates who attempted the question on the basis of the Hindi translation got the wrong answer.
The Petition further states that National Testing Agency (NTA) released an answer key only on the basis of the English translation of the question, thereby putting the Hindi-speaking candidates at a disadvantageous position vis-a-vis their English-speaking counterparts.
According to the petition, it is the practice of NTA to only treat the English version of the questions as final and that the question paper carried an instruction stipulating that, "In case of any ambiguity in translation of any question, English version shall be treated as final.”
The petition further stated that there was no ambiguity in the question and that it was an error as the English and the Hindi versions were different questions with different answers.
According to the petition the Hindi and the English versions of the question were in themselves completely standalone which in turn led the Hindi-speaking candidates to believe that the impugned question was without any ambiguity.
It further states that the candidates believed that the question could be solved without referring to its English version.
The petition further states that since the word “amplitude,” was omitted in the Hindi version, the candidates applied a different formula to the question.
They pointed out that had the question been attempted in English, the amplitude of the current flowing had to be taken into consideration and the candidates would have arrived at the answer, however, if the same question had been attempted in Hindi, the omission would result in the candidate arriving at another option.
According to the petition the question carried 4 marks and the wrong answer would lead the candidate to lose 5 marks since there is negative marking in NEET.
The petition states that the discrepancy has put the Hindi-speaking students at a disadvantage and has pushed them back by thousands of ranks thereby jeopardizing their future.
The petitioners state that as soon as the discrepancy was discovered one of the petitioners, named Shubham Singh Bais, raised his objections by filing an application and paying the requisite fee, however NTA ignored his representation and published the results on November 1.
According to the Supreme Court website, the matter is listed on November 24, before a bench of Justices Chandrachud and Vikram Nath.
Cause Title: Wajda Tabbasum & Ors vs National Testing Agency & Ors