"Cannot Doubt Wisdom Of Experts Of NTA": Delhi HC Dismisses Plea Alleging Out Of Syllabus Question In NEET (UG)-2024
|The Delhi High Court observed that it cannot doubt the wisdom of the experts of National Testing Agency (NTA) and substitute their opinion while dismissing a petition alleging an out-of-syllabus question.
The Court dismissed an aspirant’s petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution seeking the declaration of a question in the Physics section as incorrect.
A Single Bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma observed, “This Court is of the opinion that when academic and subject experts of NTA have opined that the impugned question has been prepared from the prescribed syllabus of NEET (UG)-2024, this Court cannot doubt the wisdom of the experts and substitute its opinion in place of the same.”
Advocate Sameer Kumar appeared for the petitioner, while Advocate Sanjay Khanna represented the respondents.
The petitioner sought a declaration that question number 11 of Physics-Section A in the 'T5' Test Booklet be declared incorrect or dropped in accordance with Clause 3.2 of the NEET (UG)-2024 Information Bulletin. The petitioner prayed that four marks be awarded to all candidates regardless of their attempt status. The petitioner also challenged question number 23, asserting that option 1 was the only correct option and opposed granting marks for option 3.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) countered that the question fell within Unit 18 of the syllabus, covering 'Radioactivity.' The NTA submitted that it had provided an opportunity for candidates to challenge the provisional answer key, and the objections were reviewed by subject experts who found no merit in the challenge regarding question 11.
As per the NTA, the impugned question was well-covered within the syllabus prescribed in the Information Bulletin for NEET (UG) 2024.
On 23rd July 2024, the Supreme Court refused to cancel the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test-Under Graduate Exam, 2024 (NEET-UG, 2024) and said that cancellation would not be justified. Following this, the Apex Court, while pronouncing the judgment in the petitions alleging paper leaks in the NEET-UG 2024, observed that the manner in which the NTA organised the exam this year gave rise to “serious concerns.”
The High Court referred to the Apex Court’s decision in Kanpur University v. Samir Gupta (1983) which discussed the scope of judicial adjudication and jurisdiction in such matters and held that the answer key should be presumed correct unless demonstrably wrong.
“Courts are not experts in the subject matter and should only adjudicate based on the law on the subject and its application in the facts and circumstances of the particular case. The questions in dispute had been placed before Subject Experts constituted by the exam conducting authority i.e., the National Testings Agency and the Subject Experts have already given their opinion on the questions,” the Court remarked.
Consequently, the Court held, “the present petition is dismissed alongwith pending application, if any, being devoid of merit.”
Accordingly, the High Court dismissed the petition.
Cause Title: Manas Pyasi v. National Testing Agency & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2024:DHC:5845)
Appearance:
Petitioner: Advocates Sameer Kumar and Somi Sharma
Respondents: CGSC Rakesh Kumar; GP Vedansh Anand; Advocates Sanjay Khanna, Tarandeep Singh, Karandeep Singh, Tavleen Kaur, T. Singh Dev, Aabhaas Sukhramani, Anum Hussain and Abhijit Chakravarty