Allahabad HC Finds That NEET Candidate Who Came To Limelight Making Allegations Against NTA Produced Forged And Fictitious Documents
The Allahabad High Court has dismissed the writ petition filed by Ayushi Patel, an aspirant who appeared for National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (UG) 2024 (‘NEET-UG 2024’) Exam and has found that she produced forged and manipulated documents. The Court also observed that it cannot restrain the authorities from taking any legal action against the Petitioner in accordance with law for producing forged and fictitious documents.
Ayushi Patel came to the limelight after a video of her making allegations against the National Testing Agency (‘NTA’) was shared by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The Bench of Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan observed, “Be that as it may, this is really sorry state of affairs that the petitioner filed a petition enclosing therewith the forged and fictitious documents, therefore, this Court can not restrain the competent authority / authorities to take any legal action against the petitioner strictly in accordance with law.”
Advocate Piyush Agnihotri appeared for the Petitioner whereas Senior Advocate & DSGI SB Pandey and ASGI Shashank Bhasin appeared for the Respondents.
The Petitioner filed a writ petition praying for a direction to the NTA to check the OMR sheet of the Petitioner in the NEET-UG 2024 manually. It was alleged by the Petitioner that her OMR Sheet was torn and damaged.
On June 12, 2024, the matter was listed before the Court and the Petitioner produced all her alleged original documents.
Counsel for the NTA submitted with vehemence that all the documents filed with the petition were forged and fictitious. The Court after perusal thereof noted that the statement of counsel for NTA was correct and the documents, so filed by the petitioner in the writ petition were forged and fictitious.
NTA also relied on the Chapter XIII of Information Bulletin of NEET (UG)-2004 which provides "Unfair Means Practices And Breach Of Examination Rules". Clause 13.1 deals with making false claims by manipulating the responses in the OMR sheet, and Clauses 13.2 and 13.3 deal with Punishment for using Unfair means & practices and the Cancellation of Results.
Further, the Counsel also relied on the judgment passed by the Court in Madhvi Tiwari vs. Union of India and Ors. (2023 All HC) where strict order was passed in similar circumstances.
Recently, the Supreme Court has issued notices and sought response from authorities in various petitions filed against the alleged malpractices and exam paper leak in the NEET-UG, 2024. All the matters are now listed before the Supreme Court on July 8, 2024. The Apex Court has also issued notice in the petition seeking a CBI Probe in the matter.
On June 18, 2024, while hearing the petitions, Justice Bhatti had remarked, "Your stance ought not to change the moment you enter the Court. Representing an agency, which is responsible for conducting the examination, must act fair. If there is a mistake, say 'yes' there is a mistake... at least inspire confidence in your performance. If someone keeps just a table in front of him to find out the performance of most of the candidates, one can easily understand where it has gone wrong. How many cell phones were used? What are the places from where the alleged papers have come?"
The Supreme Court has also allowed the recommendations by the Union of India and NTA, to conduct a re-examination for the 1563 candidates who were given compensatory marks.
Recently, the Calcutta High Court had also initiated action on a PIL alleging irregularities in the NEET (UG) 2024 examination. The petitioner raised concerns regarding the scoring system and argued that it would be improbable for candidates to achieve scores of 718 or 719 as per the established marking criteria.
Cause Title: Ayushi Patel v. State of U.P. and Anr. (Neutral Citation: 2024: AHC-LKO:43233)
Appearances:
Petitioner: Advocates Piyush Agnihotri, Shailesh Sachan, Gaurav Singh and Sachin Kumar.
Respondents: Senior Advocate & DSGI SB Pandey and ASGI Shashank Bhasin.
