Bombay High Court Finds No Discrepancies in Re-NEET UG Evaluation, Fines Petitioners

Re-NEET UG: The bench of the Bombay High Court at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) has finally disposed of four petitions filed against the results of the Re-NEET UG exams held by the National Testing Agency (NTA), accepting the scores declared by the NTA. While hearing the matter, a division bench consisting of Justices N.B. Suryawanshi and A.D. Shinde dealt with the serious allegations of mistakes in evaluation and tampered OMR sheets made by the candidates and asked NTA to bring the original OMR sheets from Delhi in sealed covers. At the time of hearing, the original OMR sheets were unsealed and physically verified by the Judges themselves along with the candidates, their parents, and their lawyers. 

After verifying the original answer sheets, the Bench found out that there was absolutely no discrepancy in the score awarded by the NTA, as the result of the marks obtained matched the answers written on the original sheets. Hence, two petitions were rejected, while the other two were withdrawn by the candidates. As punishment for making baseless and unverified claims before the High Court, the Bench ordered a cost of Rs. 5000 to be paid to NTA by each candidate.

Sealed Envelopes Brought From Delhi

This issue was decided upon by the Division Bench consisting of Justices N.B. Suryawanshi and A.D. Shinde. Considering the serious nature of the charges made against the NTA where the candidates had cited huge differences between their estimated marks and the actual marks on the mark sheet, the High Court directed that the original OMR Answer Sheets be brought from Delhi in sealed cover for verification. 

The Division Bench examined the original answer sheets in the presence of the students along with their parents and counsel. Mr. Rohit Sarvagya, Senior Panel Advocate, appeared on behalf of the Centre and NTA, submitting the original records. On a perusal of the records, the High Court found that there was no discrepancy in awarding of marks based on the original OMR Answer Sheets.

Court Findings & Penalty

On detailed analysis, it was found that the marks given by the NTA matched perfectly well with the actual answer sheet, without any errors.

In relation to four petitions:

• Two petitions were dismissed on merit after verifying the answer sheets physically. 

• Two petitions were withdrawn by the candidates themselves at the time of hearing.

Penal costs of ₹5,000 for each candidate have been imposed to be paid to the NTA. The High Court stressed that the legal machinery cannot be abused through tampered, AI-generated, or dubious documents. With this judgment, the High Court has given complete judicial sanction to the Re-NEET UG results issued by the examination agency.