New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Director of IIT Delhi to form a team of three experts to provide a definitive answer to a controversial question from the NEET-UG 2024 examination.
During the hearing of the case today, arguments were made regarding the ambiguity of a specific question. The hearing is set to continue on July 23.
A counsel representing a petitioner, who scored 711 marks, challenged the question for having ambiguous options, which led to the petitioner not attempting it. The National Testing Agency awarded full marks to candidates who chose either of the two options, which was contested as unfair by the council. The petitioner argued that if the NTA had not awarded marks for both options, her ranking would have been higher than the current 311th position.
The council stated, “The NTA’s policy is to attempt any if there are two correct options. However, it’s not possible to identify two correct answers during the exam. One cannot presume there will be two correct answers and that marks will be given for both.” Referencing the Kanpur University v. Samir Gupta case, the counsel insisted that ambiguous questions should be completely omitted.
The discussion escalated when the counsel highlighted that 44 students received full marks due to the grace marks for this ambiguous question. The Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, recognized the validity of the argument, observing that the NTA’s instructions were to adhere to the latest NCERT edition, which corroborated only one of the options.
To conclude the session today, the bench, headed by CJI Chandrachud, resolved to obtain an expert opinion on the correct answer to the contentious question. The order reads, “We request the Director of IIT Delhi to assemble a team of three subject experts. This team is to determine the correct option and submit their opinion to the Registrar by noon tomorrow.”
The Registrar General has been instructed to ensure communication of this order.
