Allegations of tampering of NEET-UG OMR sheets made by six candidates in the Supreme Court turned out to be a damp squib with the top court on Monday dismissing the petition finding no reason to doubt the National Testing Agency (NTA) of any wrongdoing.
A bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and AS Bopanna dismissed the petition filed by Prabhnoor Singh and five others after being convinced by the response filed by NTA that the OMR sheets were not tampered with as it is signed by the candidate and counter-signed by the invigilator. The NTA informed that before approaching the Court, five of the petitioners were shown the original OMR sheets with their signatures in the presence of their parents, who verified it to be true. This happened on November 8 while the petition was filed in the top court on November 24.
The bench said, “It cannot be suggested there was any act of tampering in the back office of NTA. Examination has been attempted by 15.44 lakh candidates of whom six have come to the Court. We decline to interfere under Article 32.”
Terming the allegations made against NTA to be “false, baseless and without merit”, the NTA affidavit filed through advocate Rupesh Kumar said, “On perusal of the original OMR answer sheet of petition 1 and scanned copy of the OMR forwarded to him through email on October 14 would show that the copy of OMR claimed to have been provided by respondent (NTA) which has been filed by the petitioner and the screenshot of the email filed are forged and fabricated.” However, the Court refused to order enquiry into the allegation of fabrication.
The NEET-UG 2021 was conducted on September 12 and results were declared on November 1. Prior to this, NTA had sent a scanned copy of OMR sheets to all candidates on their registered mail in October along with the answer key and later displayed the OMR sheets on its website after declaration of results.
As per the petitioners, after receiving their OMR sheets, they calculated their marks based on which they fared well. However, the results declared on November 1 showed their scores to be in stark contrast to their expectations. For instance, one of the petitioners, on basis of answer key calculated 589 marks but the actual score was 164. Similar was the experience of the remaining five candidates.
The NTA said that every candidate is provided one OMR sheet and test booklet with a matching code which makes each booklet and OMR unique. The OMR sheet is a specifically designed machine gradable sheet on which circles, once darkened by pen, cannot be erased. “Such a claim (of tampering) is beyond the realm of possibility and entirely incomprehensible,” the NTA said. Moreover, the agency claimed that the agency cannot have any personal gain or grudge against the candidates to indulge in any such action.
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