Power outage in NEET 2025: Andhra HC seeks report from NTA

Vijayawada: Considering the plea filed by a NEET aspirant who claimed that a power cut during her exam affected her performance, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development to submit a detailed report on the incident.

Although the NTA, in response, clarified that the disruption was minor since the test was conducted in pen and paper format and not on computers, the court did not agree with this argument and referenced similar interventions by courts in Indore and Chennai, where students were granted relief under comparable circumstances.

Medical Dialogues recently reported that the Madras High Court dismissed a plea seeking re-examination of the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET) while observing that if any re-exam is permitted on trivial grounds, the same would seriously affect the level playing field of around 22 lakh candidates. A group of NEET aspirants filing the plea sought a re-examination as they claimed that their examination centre was disrupted due to the heavy rainfall and poor management by the centre.

Also read- No NEET 2025 re-exam: Madras HC junks plea, says 22 lakh candidates can't be affected

Justice C Kumarappan dismissed the plea after taking note of the report filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which mentioned that even though there was brief power outage during the examination, it did not affect the performance of the candidates, as the examination halls were reported to be sufficiently illuminated with the natural daylight. Apart from this, NTA further claimed in the report that the School Authorities had also arranged for a power backup facility.

Previously, the court stayed publication of the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) exam results at 11 centres in Indore, which had faced a power outage during the UG medical entrance test held on May 4, 2025. Even though at first the HC bench had stayed the NEET UG results for the entire country, later it modified the order after noting that the problem of power outage was limited to 11 centres only.

Meanwhile, the current plea has been filed before the Andhra Pradesh High Court by Battina Srivalli, a student from Nellore, who appeared for the NEET exam at the Dargamitta centre. She informed the court that a sudden power outage at the centre disrupted her test and impacted her performance.

She alleged that due to the lack of proper backup facilities, she lost valuable time. In her plea, she sought either permission to retake the exam or compensation equivalent to the cost of completing her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree.

Her lawyer, Siddadapu Shiva Nagarjuna, argued that the poor arrangements at the exam centre violated her right to a fair examination, reports TNIE.

In response, the National Testing Agency’s counsel maintained that the disruption was minimal as the exam was not computer-based. However, the Court disagreed and directed the National Testing Agency Director General and the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development to submit a detailed report.

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, Chennai and Vijayawada faced a power outage because of the weather conditions.

Also read- Power Outage Disrupts NEET 2025 in Indore, HC stays results for 11 Exam Centres