New Delhi, July 22: The Supreme Court has instructed the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi to establish a three-member expert committee to determine the correct answer to a contentious multiple-choice question in the NEET-UG 2024 exam. This directive follows a petition challenging the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) decision to accept two different answers as correct for the question.
The Court has requested the expert opinion to be submitted by 12 noon tomorrow, after hearing arguments from petitioners who disputed the NTA’s stance. The bench, consisting of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, highlighted the necessity of expert input to resolve the matter.
The order stated:
“As indicated, as per the question as framed, students had to select one option as their answer. In order to resolve the issue as regards the correct answer, we are of the considered view that an expert opinion should be sought from IIT Delhi. We request the Director of IIT Delhi to constitute a team of three experts of the subject concerned. The expert team constituted by the Director is requested to formulate the opinion on the correct option and remit the opinion to the Registrar by 12 noon tomorrow. The Registrar General is requested to communicate the order to the IIT Delhi Director so that expeditious steps for the preparation of the opinion can be taken.”
The petitioners argued that according to the NTA’s instructions, students were required to follow the latest edition of the NCERT textbook. They contended that option 4 was the correct answer for Question No. 19 in Test Booklet Code S3 as per the latest NCERT syllabus, while option 2 was correct according to the old syllabus.
One petitioner, who scored 711 marks, chose not to answer the question due to the ambiguity and to avoid negative marking. She argued that awarding marks to those who selected option 2 contradicted the NTA’s own directive to follow the latest NCERT edition. She requested the Court to either delete the question or withdraw the marks awarded to students who chose option 2.
It was noted that 44 out of 61 students who achieved a perfect score of 720/720 benefited from the grace marks awarded for this question.
During the hearing, CJI Chandrachud acknowledged the validity of the petitioner’s argument, emphasising the importance of adhering to the instructions to follow the latest NCERT edition. The Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, informed the bench that 4,20,774 candidates selected option 2 (from the old NCERT edition), while 9,28,379 candidates chose option 4. He explained that the NTA decided to award marks for option 2 after receiving numerous representations from students who used older textbooks for preparation.
The bench expressed concern about retracting marks awarded to over 4.20 lakh candidates but recognized the need for a fair resolution. The hearing will continue tomorrow.
