The writ petition filed by a 17-year-old student named Shreyansi Thakur argues that the NTA’s decision to award grace marks is arbitrary and is affecting thousands of students.
In the NEET-UG exams held in May, it was observed that in Question No. 29 of Test Booklet Code R5, the answers mentioned in both options 2 and 4 were considered correct. This was contrary to the exam instructions, which stated that only one option could be correct for each Multiple Choice Question (MCQ).
Given the discrepancy, the NTA decided to award marks to all the
students who chose either of the alleged correct answers, thereby benefitting those who guessed an answer or marked the answer they thought was right.
It is the petitioner’s case that the NTA’s decision discriminates against candidates who adhered to the instructions and did not mark an answer for Question No. 29 since it had two correct answers.
“In addition, the result declared by the Respondent (NTA) also grants arbitrary and unfair grace marks to various candidates without application of mind. This is an abhorrent violation of rights of all candidates who do not benefit from this arbitrariness and end up losing their ranks (rank differences amount to about 20,000 and more) and therefore the potential of securing a better future,” the plea added.
Source: Barandbench
