NEET 2020: SC Orders NTA to Consider Providing Original OMR Sheets to Candidates

NEET 2020: The Supreme Court (SC) has directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to consider providing the original OMR sheets of NEET 2020 to the candidates if a representation for the same has been made.

The Bench of justices Ajay Rastogi, Hemant Gupta, and L Nageswara Rao had heard a petition filed by 19 National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test - NEET candidates under Article 32 claiming that the OMR sheets uploaded by NTA do not match with the actual answers marked by them.

They had also challenged an NTA notice that charged compulsorily an amount of INR 1000 against every question went for reassessment. They concluded by mentioning that if a student sends the whole paper for reassessment, then he/ she will have to pay INR 1.8 lakh for 180 questions.

The petition filed by the students also mentioned the huge angst amongst the candidates for tampering with the answer sheets.

Several conflicts were noticed comprising the tampering of booklet number, roll number, signatures, the difference in the expected score and final score, blank OMR sheets, the difference in the initially uploaded scores and revised scores, the difference in the number of questions attempted and the attempted number of questions shown, and many more.

They reported that many attempts were made to reach out to the NTA and no response was received in return. However, one of the petitioners received a response on October 11 where it was indicated that the OMR sheet appeared fabricated.

It was reported that the procedure to challenge the responses in the OMR sheet, according to the October 5 circular, was irrational and unjustified. The report also read that the payment of INR 1000 per question will accumulate to a huge sum and that would cost something that is beyond the financial capacity of petitioners and similarly positioned candidates.

One petitioner mentioned that he had to pay INR 91,000 to challenge the OMR sheet and others paid different substantial amounts as such.

The petitioners further reported that any kind of fabrication, manipulation, or tampering to the OMR sheets shall dilute the transparency in the mechanism of evaluation and they stated that NTA should verify the uploaded OMR sheets with the carbon copy of the original OMR sheets retained by it after the conduction of exam.

The petitioners further alleging contrariety in NEET 2020 results, reported that the candidates who had a great academic record are traumatized because of the current inconsistencies in the OMR sheets.