Plea claims discrepancies in NEET 2020 OMR sheets, HC seeks NTA reply

According to the petitioners, the answers on the OMR uploaded on the NTA website did not tally with answers marked by them at the time of the test and there was an apprehension that the sheets were tampered with.

NEET 2020: The Delhi High Court on December 21 sent a notice to National Testing Agency’s (NTA) to sought reply on a plea claiming major discrepancies in the OMR sheets uploaded with regard to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG 2020) conducted in September. According to the latest reports, Justice Jayant Nath issued notice to the NTA seeking its stand on the plea by 14 candidates. These candidates have also challenged the procedure laid down by the testing agency for challenging the answer key and the OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) sheets.

On December 11, the court allowed the petitioners to examine their OMR sheets and take their photographs. However, on Monday, Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocates Tanvi Dubey and Avishkar Singhvi, appearing for the candidates, told the court that the inspection revealed that “some OMR sheets were blank and in one case a torn end of the sheet was stuck together with tape.” The petitioner also claimed that there were other discrepancies in the OMR sheets they had examined and suggested setting up a high-powered committee to look into the matter.

The counsel for NTA opposed the suggestion stating that allowing it would lend credence to the allegations of the petitioners. He further added that out of nearly 16 lakh students who registered for NEET only 16 candidates — 14 by way of instant petition and two others earlier — have approached the court. NTA also claimed that students who could not do well during NEET 2020 are now approaching the court. The court, thereafter, gave the NTA time till January 4, 2021, to file its reply and listed the matter for hearing on January 8, 2021.

According to the petitioners, the answers on the OMR uploaded on the NTA website did not tally with answers marked by them at the time of the test and there was an apprehension that the sheets were tampered with. They also said that that the process to challenge the OMR answer sheets was “arbitrary and unjust” as it requires payment of Rs 1,000 per question “which is beyond the financial capacity of the petitioners and thousands of other similarly placed students”. The plea also sought a refund of Rs 91,000 paid by one of the petitioners in respect of 91 answers in his OMR sheet which he has challenged.

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