In a surprising turn of events, the Bombay High Court (HC) has directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to conduct a special NEET 2021 examination again only for selected students who got wrong booklet during exam.
The National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) 2021 was conducted across the country in the pen-and-paper format on September 12, 2021. During the exam, two students received mismatching test booklets and OMR sheets. For them, the Bombay HC has asked NTA to conduct the NEET 2021 examination again. While the NTA had no role to play in this mishap, the problem of mismatched test booklets and answer sheets happened due to lack of attention on the invigilators’ part.
NEET 2021: Students who received wrong test booklets
During NEET 2021, two students, namely Vaishnavi Bhopale and Abhishek Kapse, received the wrong combination of test booklets and OMR-based answer sheets. Both students had moved to HC on September 24, 2021, and were represented by Pooja Thorat. Both students had appeared for the exam at the Shree Swami Gurukul International School, Solapur. They informed that the invigilators began distributing test booklets and answer sheets 5 minutes late and ended up mixing the two.
Bhopale had received the test booklet of Code 04 along with answer sheet having code P4. Kapse on the other hand, received the test booklet for Code P4 and answer sheet for Code 04. They immediately pointed this out but were silenced by the invigilators and threatened them with dire consequences for disrupting the silence at the exam centre. The same was reiterated through their petition.
Even after getting threatened, students tried reasoning out with the invigilators, explaining them that mismatched test booklets and answer sheets may lead to complete non-evaluation of the paper. While the invigilators checked the combination for all students, they didn’t rectify their mistake.
Interestingly, after this mishap, the school principal admitted to the communication mix-up with the NTA officials and thereafter, appealed to the agency to conduct the exam again for both students. The same was also pointed out during the court hearing by Advocate Thorat.
After hearing the entire appeal, the bench of justices has now directed NTA to conduct the NEET 2021 exam again for all those students who received rong book-answer sheet combination. While doing so, students must be given a prior notice of 48 hours along with information about the retest date and exam centre. After the conduction of retest, NTA has been instructed to announce the results within two weeks.
Expect Delay in NEET Results Due To This Decision
Due to this new development, candidates can expect a delay in the NEET 2021 results. As per multiple reports and a supposed call recording by a YouTuber, NTA was likely to announce the results by this weekend. However, due to conduction of re-test for some candidates, results for all may be declared in November 2021, hopefully by the second week. But, there’s also a small chance of NTA announcing the results for all except those few students, on the decided date. However, it is a small possibility and is a source for major confusion among students. To not complicate things, a delay in results is what candidates can expect.
