[NEET 2021] Kerala High Court orders probe into alleged OMR fraud

The Kerala High Court recently ordered a probe into alleged malpractices on the optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet of a candidate who appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) held across India in September 2021. (Rithu Sibi v. Union of India & Ors.).Justice N Nagaresh opined that the allegations of discrepancies in the OMR sheet merits an enquiry and directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to probe the matter and report back to the Court by November 8.."Taking into consideration all these aspects, this Court is of the view that an enquiry in the matter is required. Accordingly, there shall be a direction to the NTA to consider the entire materials that have been placed by the petitioner and conduct an investigation and submit a report before this Court on or before 08.11.2021", the order stated..The Court issued the order on a petition moved by a candidate who had appeared in NEET 2021..Advocate Rajit, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that upon perusing the OMR sheet attached to the petitioner's application number, several discrepancies were noticed..According to the petitioner, the signature on the OMR sheet appeared to have been manipulated and the names of the petitioner's parents was not written by her either. It was alleged that the left hand thumb impression seen in the OMR sheet appeared to not be that of the petitioner. .Moreover, it was claimed that even the writing in the OMR sheet was not hers. The Roll number of the petitioner in the numerical did not tally with the bubbled portion either, the plea said. .The Court took note of the seriousness of the allegations and ordered an expeditious probe into the matter..Recently, the Bombay High Court had suspended declaration of the NEET results in order to conduct re-examination for two candidates who had highlighted that their test booklets and OMR sheets got mixed up during the NEET exam held on September 12..Subsequently, on October 25, the NTA moved Supreme Court against the order of the Bombay High Court to halt the declaration of results..[Read Order]