Lost time in NEET! HC grants grace marks, orders NTA to create redressal committee

New Delhi: To safeguard the interests of NEET aspirants, the Delhi High Court has directed the National Testing Agency to set up a Standing Grievance Redressal Committee to handle complaints from candidates who lose exam time due to technical glitches beyond their control.

The court opined that candidates cannot be expected to individually approach constitutional courts for redressal in such cases, and disputes involving loss of time should be reviewed by a panel of experts in a transparent and fair manner, instead of burdening the judiciary with video footage analysis in every case.

Additionally, the High Court granted relief to the NEET 2025 candidate who lost exam time due to biometric verification issues at the test centre. The court directed the NTA to award grace marks to the petitioner, applying the normalisation formula as laid down by the Supreme Court in a previous case. This was based on the confirmed loss of three minutes and 32 seconds during the examination, a delay that was not caused by the candidate.

Further, the court instructed the NTA to update the candidate’s score and rank, and to upload the revised result on its official website within five days. It also clarified that the updated rank would allow the petitioner to participate in the remaining rounds of NEET counselling, and that this adjustment would not impact seats already allotted to other candidates.

According to a recent PTI report, the Delhi High Court has directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to constitute a standing grievance redressal committee to address the issues raised by candidates who suffer loss of time due to technical issues and are not at fault while appearing in the NEET examination.

The high court said 'constitutional courts cannot be expected to view CCTV footage for each such candidate who has been prejudiced on account of loss of exam time for no fault of his.'

"Such cases ought to be examined by a body of experts in a transparent and fair manner," Justice Vikas Mahajan said while granting liberty to the standing committee to devise a formula more suitable for the examination.

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"It may be observed that this court has come across a few individual cases where the candidates suffered loss of exam time for the reasons not attributable to them...

"Accordingly, the respondent no.1/NTA is directed to constitute a standing Grievance Redressal Committee for the said purpose, if not already in place, where aggrieved candidates may approach for redressal of their grievances," the court said in its July 28 order.

The court's direction came while dealing with a plea concerning NEET-UG 2025 in which a candidate sought compensatory marks for allegedly suffering loss of time and mental disturbance due to irregularities in biometric verification at the exam centre.

The candidate had appeared for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) (UG) 2025 examination on May 4 at Trishla Devi Kanohar Lal Balika Inter College, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh centre.

The petitioner sought certain reliefs including awarding of compensatory marks in the medical entrance exam and preservation of CCTV footage from the concerned test centre.

The petitioner alleged that during the authentication process, before the exam, the biometric verification did not work at the test centre and he was made to file an application requesting permission to enter the examination hall.

The plea said the petitioner was permitted to enter the examination hall only five minutes before the commencement of the test.

While the examination was underway, he was asked to step out for the biometric verification and made to submit an application in both English and Hindi to the centre superintendent, which led to considerable mental disturbance to him while giving the exam, it said.

The court was informed that the candidate scored 98.86 percentile in the exam.

Disposing of his plea, the court noted that it was the authorities' case that at the time of entry, the candidate was required to undergo biometric authentication; however, the same could not be completed even after three attempts due to certain technical issues, reports PTI

The court, however, noted that the candidate suffered a loss of time amounting to three minutes and 32 seconds during the exam due to no fault of his.

The court directed the NTA to award grace marks to the petitioner by applying the normalisation formula laid down by the Supreme Court in a case and said that the updated result shall be communicated to the candidate and uploaded on the website within five days.

"It is made clear that on the basis of revised score and rank, the petitioner shall be eligible to participate in the remaining counselling and it shall not affect the seats already allocated," it said.

"All candidates stand on an equitable pedestal when they have been given the same amount of time for an exam. The candidate may utilise the said time as per his discretion in whatever manner he pleases. However, having taken away a portion of the time allotted to him and rationalising the said act by alleging non-utilisation of the same by the student would not be justified," the court said, adds PTI

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