Madras High Court orders CBSE to grant 196 marks for 49 erroneous Tamil questions

The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered the CBSE to grant 196 grace marks, 4 marks each for 49 erroneous questions, to students who took the Tamil version of NEET 2018 for admission in medical and dental colleges.

Justices C T Selvam and A M Basheer Ahamed of the Madurai Bench also directed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to consequently revise the list of eligible candidates.

The bench, however, said it shall be open to authorities concerned to go about the counselling process (which is already on in Tamil Nadu) for eligible candidates.

The order was issued based on a petition filed by CPI-M leader T K Rangarajan, who said that 49 questions who said that key words in the Tamil questions were wrongly translated from English, which caused confusion for the students.

A bench of Justices C T Selvam and A M Basheer Ahamed had on July 6 pulled up the CBSE for releasing the results despite knowing that a PIL on the matter was filed and it was due for hearing.

National Eligibilty cum Entrance Test (NEET) was conducted across in 136 cities in 11 languages, the results of which were announced on June 4. Around 1.07 lakh candidates took the exam across 170 centres in 10 cities in Tamil Nadu.

There were 180 questions with a total mark of 720 in the NEET.

The judges said the students who took the exam in Tamil should be suitably compensated to provide a level-playing ground.

Referring to the question of CPI-IMs leader’s locus standi to move the court on the issue, the bench said 49 erroneous questions out of 180 questions was huge enough for public interest ligation and it mattered little as to who raised the issue.

(With inputs from agencies)