The Madhya Pradesh High Court has put a temporary stop to an earlier order that asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to hold a re-exam for 75 NEET-UG students.

Madhya Pradesh High Court Puts Hold on NEET Re-Test Order for 75 Students

A Division Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has put a temporary hold (stay) on an earlier decision made by a single judge, which had ordered the National Testing Agency (NTA) to re-conduct the NEET-UG exam for 75 students. 

These students had complained about power outages during the exam at centres in Indore and Ujjain.

A single judge, Justice Subodh Abhyankar, had directed the NTA to conduct a re-exam for these students, saying they were unfairly affected due to lack of electricity, while other centres did not face such issues. 

The judge also said only those students who had filed their complaints before June 3 (the date when the provisional answer key was released) would be allowed to take the re-test.

He stated in his order:

“The students faced a situation beyond their control. Because of the power cut, they were at a disadvantage, especially when others had proper lighting, even in the same exam centre.”

He added:

“The NTA should conduct the re-exam as soon as possible and release the results based on that.”

The NTA challenged this order. They filed a plea saying the re-exam wasn’t needed. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the NTA, said that the exam wasn’t really disrupted and presented a report from an expert committee. 

This report said that at most centres, alternative power arrangements like inverters, emergency lights, and candles were made, and power was restored quickly when complaints were made.

This led to a Division Bench (Justices Vivek Rusia and Binod Kumar Dwivedi) putting a hold on the re-test order while the case continued.

The issue started when a girl student from Indore filed a petition saying her performance was affected due to a power cut at her exam centre. 

She also alleged mismanagement and lack of backup power. Power outages were reported in many parts of Indore on May 4, the day NEET was held, because of bad weather.

After this, several more students came forward with similar complaints over the past 1.5 months.

An expert committee formed by the Indore Collector and other senior officials physically inspected the affected centres. Their report said:

• Power was restored quickly when complaints were made.

• Most centres had backup options like inverters, candles, and emergency lights.

• The exam was not affected as claimed.

The court did not fully trust the committee report, saying:

“The report is based only on technical data. It ignores the actual emotional and mental stress students went through.”

The judge emphasized that:

“Even a 10-minute disruption during a 3-hour exam can disturb a student’s focus and cause anxiety, which can ruin their performance.”

To demonstrate the effect of poor lighting, the judge even switched off the lights in the courtroom and showed how natural light alone isn’t always enough.