SEKAR REPORTER

Court News from Madras High Court

Students filed Neet case in mhc / former sgp pothiraj filed / Judge Anitha sumanth / In these circumstances, it is prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to issue a Writ of Mandamus, or any other Writ, order or direction more in the nature of Writ directing the 2nd respondent to re-rank all the candidates based on their natural/original NEET score and issue revised score card well before the counseling process to the medical colleges admission both in Government and private institutions and pass such further or other orders as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper and thus render justice.

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
(Special Original Jurisdiction)

W.P.No. of 2024

Minor Bharghav Venkateswar
Rep. by his father and natural guardian
Raghavan Venkateswaran
233, 8th Street, Ashtalakshmi Nagar
Valasaravakkam, Chennai 600 087 ..Petitioner

Versus
  1. The Union of India rep. by its Secretary
    Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
    New Delhi
  2. The Director
    National Testing Agency
    1st Floor, NSIC-MDBP Building
    Ohla Industrial Estate
    New Delhi 110 020
  3. The Chairperson
    National Medical Commission
    New Delhi ..Respondents

AFFIDAVIT FILED BY THE PETITIONER

 I, Raghavan Venkateswaran, Hindu, aged about 52 years, residing at No.233, 8th Street, Ashtalakshmi Nagar, Valasaravakkam, Chennai 600 087, do hereby solemnly affirm and sincerely state as follows:

1) I am the father of the minor herein and I am authorized to swear to this affidavit as I am well acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case.

2) The petitioner herein states that his minor son Bhargav Venkateswar studied in Central Board of Secondary Education pattern at Devi Academy, Alapakkam Road, Valasaravakkam, Chennai and passed his Secondary School Examination during the year 2022 with A1 grade by securing marks as follows:

    Subject                 Marks secured out of 100 
        English Language & Literature             97
    Tamil                             94
    Mathematics                     100
    Science                       95
    Social Science                    97

Thereafter, his minor son also passed his Senior School Certificate Examination in the year 2024 by securing the following marks:

    Subject                 Marks secured out of 100 
        English Core                        95
    Mathematics                     97
    Physics                     95
    Chemistry                       95
    Biology                     95

3) The petitioner herein states that his son, in order to pursue his course in medicine, appeared in the recently conducted (2024) National Eligiblity cum Entrance Test (hereinafter referred to as NEET exam) and secured 671 marks out of 720. His mark certificate is filed in the typedset of papers for the perusal of this Hon’ble Court. The petitioner herein stats that he is given NEET All India Rank as 13929. While so, the 2nd respondent, based on some representations and some court cases, has given grace marks to some students in some States for loss of time during the conduct of the examination on 05.05.2024. The said exercise done by the 2nd respondent by adopting normalization formula by awarding grace marks to students who lost their time during the conduct of the NEET examination, has resulted in grave injustice to other students who have secured high marks in that examination. The exercise adopted under the guise of normalization formula by the 2nd respondent based upon a judgment of the Hon’ble Apex Court is highly illegal as the said judgment dated 13.06.2018 does not apply to entrance examination for medical studies.

4) The petitioner herein states that the grievance of the petitioner’s son is that the 2nd respondent’s adoption of normalization process by awarding grace marks to a number of candidates from a number of examination centres who have allegedly affected by loss of time in NEET UG 2024 across different cities, has adversely impacted a lot of candidates aspiring for MBBS seat in 2024. The petitioner herein states that awarding of grace marks to such affected candidates has altered the select candidates’ scores positively. This has negatively impacted the All India Rank of lakhs of candidates including the petitioner’s son.

5) The petitioner herein states that awarding of grace marks will most likely lead to very high cut off marks for MBBS admission for the academic year 2024 for bht Government and private institutions and is likely to result in thousands of deserving candidates not been able to secure their MBBS seats in 2024, despite having secured good marks in the NEET examination. The petitioner’s son is also a victim for the normalization process adopted by the 2nd respondent. It is to be mentioned that the petitioner’s son has secured 671 marks out of 720 which is considered to have secured All India Rank within 4000 during the previous year, whereas the awarding of grace marks by the 2nd respondent in the current year 2024 in a non-transparent manner, has led to serious irregularities and illegalities and it has impacted several students who have secured high marks and by awarding grace marks, such marks have altered the ranking system at the All India Level in the NEET UG exam merit list. Therefore, the 2nd respondent is bound to take remedial action to reverse the grace marks given to such candidates who are part of the normalization process and re-rank all the candidates based on their original NEET score without adding the grace marks to the candidates who have claimed that they have lost their time during the examination. The petitioner states that the 2nd respondent should generate and provide revised score cards well before the counseling process which is due to start in a week’s time.

6) The petitioner herein states that the 2nd respondent has not followed any of the procedure. Further, the rationale behind the adoption of normalization process to the candidates who are affected by loss of time at the examination centres has also not been put in the public domain. The manner in which the awarding of grace marks is also not done in a transparent manner by the 2nd respondent. Moreover the number of candidates who have been awarded such grace marks is also not put in the public domain, besides the fact that details of students who have been affected by loss of time has also not been made public and their examination centres are also not notified by the 2nd respondent to enable the NEET aspirants to find out under what circumstances those candidates have lost their time. The number of such candidates who are awarded grace marks is also not mentioned/published by the 2nd respondent.

7) The petitioner herein states under the normalization process adopted by the 2nd respondent, how much grace marks were given to candidates affected in the examination centres of NEET UG 2024 has also not been made in a transparent manner by the 2nd respondent. Therefore, the petitioner, who is seriously aggrieved by the procedure adopted by the 2nd respondent under normalization process, made a representation to the 2nd respondent to rethink and re-do the process of reverting the grace marks awarded to candidates as part of the normalization process and to re-rank the marks secured by the candidates and issue a new NEET scrore card for all the candidates who are aspiring for admission to medicine studies. Since the counseling process has to be commenced within a week or two, having no other alternative or efficacious remedy as against the grace marked under the normalization procedure by the 2nd respondent, the petitioner is approaching this Hon’ble Court by way of this writ petition seeking to exercise its power under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The petitioner’s sons right to education is grossly affected by the indiscriminate exercise adopted by the 2nd respondent and as a result the petitioner is deprived of his right under Article 14 & 15 of the Constitution of India.

8) The petitioner herein states that the normalization procedure adopted by the 2nd respondent has adversely impacted the interests of students numbering around 23.33 lakhs and by the irregular handling of awarding grace and compensatory marks in the NEET UG 2024 exam, candidates who have secured higher marks throughout their career. It is also to be mentioned that the 2nd respondent has not considered question paper leak in a particular subject and no action has been taken despite a criminal complaint lodged with regard to the paper leak and the subsequent arrest of thirty individuals in Bihar.

9) The petitioner herein states that many students who were awarded grace marks have reported that their answer sheets were collected twenty minutes before the 3 hours 20 minutes duration. Instead of organizing re-examination, the 2nd respondent has selectively awarded grace marks to students who made representations or took legal action by approaching the High Courts of Punjab and Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh. The said exercise was done by the 2nd respondent without specifying the number of marks awarded as grace marks and this discriminator approach is evident through the 2nd respondent’s press release dated 06.06.2024. The petitioner herein states that assessing the students’ answering skills in this manner is unscientific as the students may not answer the question in the order they appear in the examination question paper. Moreover, the 2018 Supreme Court judgment rendered is based on a complaint for an examination conducted for CLAT which is a computer based examination and not on the basis of pen and paper test in the NEET UG exam. Therefore, in the interest of justice, it is just and necessary for this Hon’ble Court to issue suitable directions to the 2nd respondent herein to revert the grace marks issued as part of normalization process to those students who have appeared in the NEET UG examination 2024 conducted by the 2nd respondent, or otherwise serious prejudice will be caused to the genuine students including the petitioner’s son. It is also just and necessary for this Hon’ble Court to pass an order of interim injunction restraining the 3rd respondent herein from proceeding with the counseling for medical admission to the undergraduate course until the 2nd respondent completes the process of evaluation of the grace marks awarded to the candidates appeared in NEET UG 2004 exam.

 For the reasons stated above, it is prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to It is also just and necessary for this Hon’ble Court to pass an order of interim injunction restraining the 3rd respondent herein from proceeding with the counseling for medical admission to the undergraduate course until the 2nd respondent completes the process of evaluation of the grace marks awarded to the candidates appeared in NEET UG 2004 exam, pending disposal of the above writ petition and pass such further or other orders as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper and thus render justice.

For the reasons stated above, it is also prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to issue suitable directions to the 2nd respondent herein to revert the grace marks issued as part of normalization process to those students who have appeared in the NEET UG examination 2024 conducted by the 2nd respondent, pending disposal of the above writ petition and pass such further or other orders as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper and thus render justice.

In these circumstances, it is prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to issue a Writ of Mandamus, or any other Writ, order or direction more in the nature of Writ directing the 2nd respondent to re-rank all the candidates based on their natural/original NEET score and issue revised score card well before the counseling process to the medical colleges admission both in Government and private institutions and pass such further or other orders as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper and thus render justice.

Solemnly affirmed at Chennai ] BEFORE ME
this the day of ]
June 2024 and signed his name ]
in my presence. ] ADVOCATE, CHENNAI

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