NEET UG 2021: Supreme Court directs relief for PwD candidate who sought directions for re-exam

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to grant relief to a female PwD candidate who was denied an extra hour in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) exam 2021.

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"The NTA must remember that all authority under the law is subject to responsibility and above all to a sense of accountability. It is governed by the rule of law and the necessity of observing fairness. As an examining body, the NTA was bound to scrupulously enforce the guidelines for the examination which provide for specific relaxations for persons with disability. Authority cannot be allowed to get away,” the top court observed as per a LiveLaw report.

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However, the apex court has refused to allow re-examination for the student and asked the agency to find a solution for the injustice meted out to the petitioner, a NEET aspirant suffering from dysgraphia, a neurological disorder that impairs writing.

The court has given two-weeks' time to the NTA to find a solution.

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A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna were hearing a plea of a female student suffering from dysgraphia whose grievance was that she was not allowed an additional one-hour for attempting the questions and her answer sheet was snatched by the invigilator.

She sought re-examination or to be adequately compensated with grace marks or no negative marking in case of wrong answers.

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Advocate Rupesh Kumar, appearing for NTA said that it only conducts the examination and declares the results and does not have much control at the ground level.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had said that NEET examination brochure must contain a specific segment for candidates with disabilities to show what are the benefits available to them. It said that the National Testing Agency (NTA) must also train their invigilators who are at the ground level in examination centres as to how they should deal with students with disabilities.