Chennai: The Supreme Court’s order of lifting the stay for releasing the Neet results has shocked many activists and educationists in the state.
The Madras high court acting on a batch of petitions from students who took Neet stayed the results on May 24. The apex court hearing the petition from CBSE on Monday gave the permission to CBSE to release the results.
Expressing shock Dr G.R. Ravindranath, general secretary, Doctors’ Association for Social Equality, said, “The CBSE itself had accepted in the court that a different set of question papers were given in English and regional languages in Neet. In some languages the questions were easy and other languages the questions were tough.”
“If a merit list is prepared for entire country based on this exam it would be discriminatory as the entrance test did not have uniformity,” he said.
“There was no level playing field for students who took the exam in regional languages. That’s why the HC stayed the release of results. In this background, SC’s order is shocking,” he added.
The CBSE did not mention that the question papers would vary according to the languages. It also said nothing about the standardisation of procedure.
“We demand that the central government immediately cancel the Neet exam and to conduct a re-exam for management seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities,” G.R. Ravindranath urged.
He further said, “The re-exam must have single question paper and the paper should be translated into the regional languages.”
Tamil Nadu Health Development Association president Dr C.S. Rex Sargunam urged all the parties to take up the issue with the central government. “All the parties in TN should compel the Centre to send the bills for the President’s assent. State government has the responsibility to get the President’s assent to these bills,” he said. Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed two bills unanimously exempting the state government controlled seats from Neet in February.
So far, the Central government did not take any action to get the President’s assent to these acts. “The Central government either should take action to get the exemption or reject these bills,” he said.
PB Prince Gajendrababu, general secretary, State Platform for Common School System, said, “The SC has passed the order unilaterally. It did not discuss why the HC had stayed releasing the Neet results. So the order is not justifiable.”
