NEET row: NTA's response on time limit to raise OMR sheet grievances

The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a response from the National Testing Agency (NTA) on the petition that claimed "inconsistent" calculation of marks on the OMR sheets used for the NEET-UG 2024 exam.

A vacation bench of Justices Manoj Misra and SVN Bhatti issued a notice and sought the NTA's response by July 8, the date of the next hearing.

The petition filed by the learning app Xylem Learning also brought up the issue of the time limit for raising the grievance regarding the OMR sheets.

"Let us know if there is a timeline to provide the OMR sheets. As of now, we will tag it. Let NTA seek instructions on this," said the bench.

During the hearing, the bench questioned the coaching centre for filing a petition on the issue and said coaching centres have "no role to play".

The bench observed, "This is a (Article) 32 petition by instance of a coaching centre. What Fundamental right of yours is violated? This is one of the reasons why we see this role played by the coaching centres and bagpipers. They have hardly any role to play. Their obligation and duty... if they have discharged their service that is the end of the matter. They have not undertaken to see that everything that Centre is supposed to do will be taken care of by them."

Senior advocate R Basant replied that the petitioners also included students who were supposed to be given the OMR sheets.

He said their interim prayer is to obtain the OMR sheets as some of the students have not been given the same yet.

Several petitions were filed in the apex court seeking direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and to conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the test held on May 5.

The apex court had already refused to stay the counselling of NEET-UG, 2024.

NEET-UG examination, conducted by NTA, is the pathway for admissions into MBBS, BDS AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.