Supreme Court dismisses plea by 6 NEET candidates claiming discrepancies in OMR answer sheets

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by six students who alleged discrepancies in their OMR answer sheets in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

They claimed that the answers they originally marked in their OMR sheets differed from those reflected in the OMR sheets uploaded by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

A Bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe said that the top court is only examining the larger issue concerning institutionalisation of NTA and issues concerning strengthening of the mechanism and not individual issues.

The individual issues can be raised before the Delhi High Court, the Court said.

"Similar grievances are there. We are on institutionalisation of NTA," the Bench remarked.

"Our grievance is different. We may be provided original OMR copies so we can verify our marks. Counselling is already on the go. We are on a limited point," the counsel for the petitioners said.

"Move the Delhi High Court," the Court said while dismissing the plea.

All the six students had secured more than 600–650 marks in the NEET exams.

They said that the OMR sheets they marked during the exam were not the ones reflected on the NTA website.

They contended that the alleged discrepancies in their OMR sheets could significantly affect their admission prospects.

The NTA had earlier released scanned copies of candidates' OMR answer sheets and provided a window for candidates to challenge any discrepancies in the recorded responses before the results were finalised.

Recently, the Bombay High Court had issued notice on a petition alleging a mismatch between a candidate's expected and declared score. The Delhi High Court has also been moved by a student claiming that his score changed multiple times on the NTA portal.

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