NEET Re-Exam 2025: 'Sympathy for students, but bad luck happens', HC reserves verdict on plea

“Only one plane crashed, but thousands fly every day,” Madhya Pradesh High Court said while reserving the verdict on the NEET UG 2025 re-test plea filed by the candidates who were affected by a power outage at exam centres in Indore and Ujjain. The division bench was hearing the National Testing Agency (NTA)'s appeal against the single-judge order that had directed it to conduct a re-exam.

The verdict came just days after a division bench of the MP High Court stayed the single judge order to conduct re-exam for the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2025 for affected candidates.

"Disturbance to the students is not disputed; we also understand the issue of stress faced by the students in such a situation. We have full sympathy for students. Many have taken drop also, we understand their problem. But see, 22 Lakhs students had appeared, all of them can't be selected. Hard Luck Bad Luck. Only one plane crashed (referring to the Ahmedabad Air India crash), but thousands fly every day. One girl missed the flight by ten minutes, but she was saved. So it happens," the court said.

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NEET UG 2025: Discussions on grace marks, AIR 1, 2

A report submitted by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta stated that candidates had ample natural light to complete the paper during the one-hour power outage at 19 centres. It also mentioned that diesel generators (DG) were available at some centres.

Advocate Rupesh Kumar, on the other hand, who was representing the students, argued: "Light was not sufficient to even read the question...given the storm, rain, there was no sunlight. Re-exam can be undertaken in exceptional circumstances.”

The SG countered this by noting that one candidate from the affected centre was able to achieve an All India Rank (AIR) 2, while several others scored over 600 marks, suggesting the power outage did not significantly impact performance.

"If grace marks are to be given, who should be given the benefit of it? If AIR 2 is also given grace marks, he would be AIR 1," he added.

The NEET UG 2025 result was declared on June 15, where around 12.36 lakh candidates qualified for admission to various medical and dental colleges aaross India.