NEET 2025 Power outage row: HC sympathizes with students, reserves verdict on re-exam

Indore: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has reserved its verdict on the National Testing Agency's appeal challenging a single judge bench's order to hold a re-test of the NEET 2025 examination for the candidates affected by a power outage at the examination centres in Indore and Ujjain.

Taking note of the submissions by NTA and the NEET candidates, the HC Division bench of Justices Vivek Rusia and Binod Kumar Dwivedi orally observed, "Disturbance to the students is not disputed; we also understand the issue of stress faced by the students in such a situation. We have full sympathy for students. Many have taken drop also, we understand their problem. But see, 22 Lakhs students had appeared, all of them can't be selected. Hard Luck Bad Luck. Only one plane crashed (referring to the Ahmedabad Air India crash), but thousands fly every day. One girl missed the flight by ten minutes, but she was saved. So it happens."

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that on June 23, a Single bench of the High Court comprising Justice Subodh Abhyankar of the Indore bench had ordered a re-test of 75 affected candidates while citing Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which ensures equality and justice, as the basis for its decision, stating that the students were placed at a disadvantage through no fault of their own.

However, after the National Testing Agency (NTA) challenged the decision, the Division bench of the High Court had stayed the Single bench's direction in this regard.

Also Read: No NEET 2025 Re-exam for power outage affected candidates- MP HC stays order

NTA Relies on Independent Committee Report:

During the hearing of the matter, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for NTA, relied on a report drafted by an independent committee, which showed that despite the one-hour power outage at the 19 affected centres, the candidates had sufficient natural light to complete the ecam, and Diesel Generator (DG) sets were also available in some centres.

This committee is comprised of one professor from IIT-Delhi and two professors from the University. Relying on the committe's report, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued, "They were neutral people...report suggests that it can be said with 99% confidence that there is no difference between the affected and non-affected centres." Therefore, he termed the plea for a re-test as a "second bite at the cherry".

Mehta also submitted that NTA could not be asked to produce CCTV footage of the centre since they were rendered dysfunctional during the power outage.

Meanwhile, the counsel for the aggrieved students, Advocate Rupesh Kumar, submitted that the single judge had "outrightly rejected" the statistical analysis done by the committee.

He claimed, "Light was not sufficient to even read the question...given the storm, rain, there was no sunlight."

Is NEET re-test permissible under the Law? 

As per the latest media report by Live Law, noting that there was no dispute regarding the factum of power outage, the HC bench asked the counsel whether re-examination in such a situation was permissible, particularly under the guidelines as per which the exam was conducted.

In response, Advocate Kumar, counsel for the students, answered, "Re-exam can be undertaken in exceptional circumstances."

Meanwhile, the Solicitor General informed the Court that approximately 22.9 lakh candidates appeared in the exam, with 27,064 from Indore. He pointed out that only 75 candidates from Indore had approached the Court and remarked, "why should lakhs of students be disturbed?"

Therefore, he argued that this was not an extraordinary situation where a re-test could be conducted.

However, the counsel for the students relied on the Supreme Court order in the case of Dr. Aditi & Ors. v. National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences & Ors., where the Apex Court, while dealing with NEET-PG cases, had orally remarked that when a legitimate grievance is raised, it is relevant that only a few persons were seeing a relief.

"So their argument that only a few students have come is not convincing," submitted the Counsel for the students.

In response, the Solicitor General submitted that there were no guidelines with the NTA for conducting a re-test. He further added that a re-test would delay the academic session, which commences after the counselling and the counselling cannot start until the results are out.

Were Students Affected During Power Outage? 

During the hearing, the SG had argued that NEET being a multiple-choice type question format paper, no descriptive answers were to be given. The SG argued, "I am not supposed to write long answers, like we used to in our days...In an MCQ-type question, you have to darken one circle out of 4 options, but if the light is not proper, darkening would also get affected, which is not the case here."

However, the counsel for the students, Senior Advocate Aditya Sanghi, submitted that there was no power backup at the exam centres and candle lights had to be provided.

"We are in 2025, and selected centres had no power backup? Why candle light was provided? It speaks for itself that it was completely dark," he submitted.

Taking note of this, the Court orally inquired if any of the students left the exam centre after the power outage. In response, the counsel answered in the negative.

"Maybe there can be no test, I agree. NTA must should do something, including compensating them. Candidates have burnt midnight oil. NTA must compensate either by way of grace-marks or otherwise," he continued.

At this outset, the Solicitor General pointed out that one student from the affected centre secured AIR 2, whereas there were 11 candidates from the affected centres who were toppers and scored more than 600 marks. This, he said, indicated that the power outage did not affect the performance of the students.

However, the counsel for the students submitted that not every student has the same "level of efficiency" as the one scoring AIR 2. He claimed that some students can solve the paper early and may not be affected by the power outage that occurred later.

The Solicitor General, thereafter, submitted that there was a practical difficulty in awarding grace marks. He submitted, "If grace marks are to be given, who should be given the benefit of it? If AIR 2 is also given grace marks, he would be AIR 1."

When the counsel for the students submitted that the NTA has the resources to conduct a re-exam, the SG responded by saying, "It is not a question of deficiency of either infrastructure or resources. Is it possible for NTA to conduct a re-exam, because in such scenarios, identification of the students is impossible. Do we have any cut off mark? Unless a precise case is there as to how many students were affected, which is rebuttable, we can't do anything."

Also Read: After MP, Madras HC junks NEET 2025 re-exam plea

HC Observations on Madras HC Order refusing re-exam due to power outage:

At this outset, the SG relied on the Madras High Court's recent judgment refusing similar pleas seeking NEET re-test on the alleged grounds of disruption due to heavy rainfall, power outage and poor management by the center.

However, the counsel for the students submitted at this outset, "In the Madras HC judgement, it was observed that enough light was there, but here in Ujjain and Indore, no such light was there. The situation was totally different here. NTA, in 2025, did not provide for power backup."

During the hearing of the matter, the Judges also sought to know if the aggrieved students wanted a re-examination for the entire centre, or for themselves. To this, the counsel for the students responded by saying, "We want a re-examination for us. But others can be given an option to take the re-test. For the centres which are affected and those students who could not come before the court, can be given a chance."

Background: 

NEET UG examination, which was held on May 4 this year, is the gateway for medical aspirants to get admitted to undergraduate medical courses across the country. However, this year, on the day of the exam, several exam centres in Indore faced a power outage because of the weather conditions.