New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday directed the IIT Delhi director to form a three-member committee and form an opinion on a Physics multiple choice question in the NEET UG 2024.
The panel was directed to submit by Tuesday afternoon its opinion on question 19 of physics section that led the National Test Agency (NTA) to award grace marks, resulting in 44 toppers.
Some of the petitioners had challenged the NTA considering two options as the correct answers to the question, before the bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud, and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
There are two different answers to the question regarding atomic composition in the old and new versions of the NCERT book
According to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, 4,20,773 individuals answered as per the old book and 9,28,379 answered in accordance with the new NCERT textbook.
Overall, the NTA had awarded grace marks to 1,563 medical aspirants for reasons such as ‘loss of time during examination,’ changes to textbooks among others.
“As indicated, as per the question as framed, students had to select one option as their answer. In order to resolve the issue as regards the correct answer, we are of the considered view that an expert opinion should be sought from IIT Delhi. We request the Director of IIT Delhi to constitute a team of three experts of the subject concerned,” the top court said.
“The expert team constituted by the Director is requested to formulate the opinion on the correct option and remit the opinion to the Registrar by 12 noon tomorrow. The Registrar General is requested to communicate the order to the IIT Delhi Director so that expeditious steps for the preparation of the opinion can be taken,” it added.
The hearing on this matter will resume Tuesday.
Earlier, senior advocate Hooda told the top court that the ‘paper leak’ took place through WhatsApp and contended that it was impossible that it was confined only to Patna in Bihar.
“If the court is not considering re-NEET, then the qualified people should be asked to retake the exam, which will be about 13 lakh people,” he said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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