NEET 2025: Supreme Court Orders Manual evaluation for Candidate Given Question Paper with Wrong Sequence
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: Granting relief to a NEET UG 2025 candidate, who alleged that his marks and rank got affected due to the wrong sequencing of his paper, the Supreme Court has passed an interim order directing reevaluation of the candidate.
"...we direct that the petitioner’s paper shall be evaluated manually and the result of the evaluation be placed on the record. The said exercise shall be carried out within a period of one week," ordered the Apex Court bench comprising Justices B.V. Nagarathna and K.V. Viswanathan.
The petitioner claimed that while the question paper should have been sequenced from question no. 1 to 180, it was from question 1 to 27, then 54 to 81, and then 28 to 53, and then 118 to 151, 82 to 117, and then 152 to 180.
Meanwhile, since the OMR sheet attached to the said question paper was in rising serial from 1 to 180, there was no match between the question paper and the OMR. Allegedly, the petitioner had asked the invigilators for another copy of the question paper. However, he was denied.
As per the latest media report by Live Law, the Additional Solicitor General Archana Pathak Dave suggested that this was the rarest of rare instances and such instances don't usually happen. She submitted that the mistake happened merely because of the stapling of the question paper, which led to erroneous sequencing. She argued that since sequencing was not in seriatim, this could not have caused prejudice to the petitioner.
In response, even though Justice Nagarathna agreed that this could be a genuine mistake, he nevertheless suggested that the paper could be checked manually for the satisfaction of the candidate.
"Process is important, he has come for the process. He may not get a seat, but at least he will have the satisfaction that the highest court has looked into this aspect," observed Justice Nagarathna.
Meanwhile, Justice Viswanathan asked the ASG why the papers are given for stapling to those who can't read. The ASG answered, "There is a reason. I had asked this question to the officer in charge. We have to employ only semi-skilled and semi-literate people because we if we employ literate people, then if he staples it, we know for sure that one or two questions he can memorise and they can go out. In the entire 25 lakhs, these are only today nine cases, eight cases have gone to the Rajasthan High Court, wherein it has been dismissed by a single judge as well as a division bench...This is the rarest of rare case."
In response Justice Nagarathna observed, "Rarest of rare or not, the person must have justice."
Accordingly, the bench ordered, "We have heard learned ASG for the Respondent. She has submitted a copy of the question paper in order to explain that there was a mistake merely in the stapling of the question paper, which led to an erroneous sequencing in so much as the sequencing was not in seriatum, and that it could not have caused any prejudice to the petitioner herein. However, in order to satisfy ourselves, we direct that the petitioner's paper be evaluated manually and the result of the evaluation be placed on record. The said exercise should be carried out within 1 week. List on 12.08.2025."
To view the order, click on the link below:
https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/supreme-court-neet-ug-candidate-297019.pdf
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