Madras High Court raps CBSE over NEET question paper errors

The Madras High Court bench on Friday came down heavily on the CBSE observing that it was being autocratic in the matter related to errors in the Tamil version of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, 2018.

A bench of justices C T Selvam and A M Basheer Ahamed made the observation while hearing a public interest litigation filed by CPI-M leader T K Rangarajan, seeking award of full marks for 49 ‘erroneous’ questions in the Tamil version of the NEET.

The court said CBSE had released the results despite knowing that a PIL on the matter was filed and it was due for hearing.

The bench, referring to CBSE's submission, asked how the board decide the answers based on majority view.

“How do you decide the right answers for the questions based on majority view? CBSE is accepting even wrong answers under the pretext of majority decision. How is that in Bihar state so many students got through the examination?” the bench asked.

Hearing on the PIL was adjourned later without a specific date.

The petitioner has submitted that key words in the Tamil questions were wrongly translated from English, which caused confusion for the students.

The court, in the previous hearing, had asked the CBSE to file an affidavit stating among others on whether any exercise was undertaken to ascertain which of the English words in the syllabi for science subjects were incapable of being reproduced in an equivalent word in Tamil.

It had also criticised the CBSE saying the mistakes in the question paper were not mere ambiguity.

(With inputs from agencies)