MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court (HC) today restrained the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) from declaring the results of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 until June 7.
Justice M.V.Muralidaran passed the interim order on a joint writ petition filed by a group of students from Madurai seeking a direction to the Centre to cancel the NEET conducted on May seven for admissions to MBBS and BDS courses on the ground that different question papers set for the test held in ten languages would lead to discrimination between students.
The Judge asked CBSE not to declare results of NEET 2017 until final orders were passed on the joint writ petition challenging NEET and ordered an interim stay till June 7.
In an affidavit filed on behalf of the students S.Jonila, P.Surya, P.Siddarth, K.Ajay Sharan, S.Nitin Prakash, J.Aditya, D.Richard Rishaban Dass, M.Naveen Kumar, Gautham Sankar and Sivasubramanian, it was stated that different sets of question papers had been used across the country despite students being assured that NEET would be held on the basis of uniform syllabus.
The petitioners said that all of them had written the NEET in English on the basis of uniform syllabus. However, the question paper in Tamil was much easier than in English. They argued that the CBSE, by framing different question papers, had denied them a level playing field. Instead, the Board could have translated a common question paper.
Stating that “one India, one question paper is a must in NEET,” otherwise assessment of intelligence and aptitude will differ, the petitioners demanded that NEET 2017 be cancelled and fresh examination with uniform question papers be conducted across the country.
The petitioners further stated that students in Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal too were agitated over different question papers having been prepared in different languages. They accused the CBSE of maintaining a stoic silence on the issue, they said if dissimilar gauging is permitted, candidates with lower ability would benefit and those with higher ability would get ousted from competition.
It should be pointed out that when the case came up for hearing before Justice N.Seshasayee on May 18, the judge refused to grant any kind of interim order but for ordering notice to CBSE that had conducted the NEET in English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Odia and Assamese.