New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the decks for the declaration of results of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Neet) examination held on May 7 for admission to medical and BDS courses across the country.
A vacation bench of Justices Prafulla C. Pant and Deepak Gupta gave the nod to the CBSE to declare the results by staying an interim order of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on May 24, restraining the CBSE from releasing the results. The court taking note of the submission that 11.38 lakh students will be affected if results are not declared, directed the authorities concerned to proceed with the process of declaration of results, counselling and admission as per the schedule of admissions fixed in 2016. The bench said counselling and admission will be subject to the final orders in these appeals. The bench issued notice to the students who had filed writ petitions in Madras and Gujarat High Courts seeking their response and posted the matter for further hearing in July. The bench agreed to examine whether different question papers can be set, one in English, Hindi and other regional languages and whether such an examination will affect the level-playing field.
CBSE set different pattern: Plea
The apex court barred all High Courts from entertaining fresh petitions against Neet. On May 24, the Madras High Court acting on a batch of petitions from students who took Neet examination stayed the results. It was argued that the CBSE had set different question papers in English and 10 regional languages. Since there was no uniformity there was no level playing field for students who took the exam in Tamil.
The HC also asked the CBSE whether the questions in English could have been translated in other languages instead of different questions in each language. The CBSE’s appeal is against this order. It said there cannot be a uniform question in all languages as if there is leak of question paper in one language, the exam can go on in other languages and corrective action can be taken where there was leak. The apex court took note of the submissions and stayed the High Court order.
