NEET UG 2021: Supreme Court dismisses plea seeking omission of a physics question

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea seeking deletion of a physics question due to an error in Hindi translation in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2021. The court dismissed the petition after the expert committee constituted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) said that the answer for the Hindi and English versions was the same, the Live Law reported

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As per the report, “Advocate Archana Pathak Dave, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that ‘dhaara’ does not refer to ‘amplitude’. In the Class 12 Physics book, which is the ‘Bible’ for the NEET students, the word used for ‘amplitude’ is ‘aayam’.”

"When experts have opined then there is no reason for us to interfere. We could have at least seen if it was a law paper. We have to draw the line that is not our remit at all", Justice Chandrachud said and dismissed the plea.

The petitioners had said that the question put Hindi-speaking candidates at disadvantageous position, and said, “The NTA without taking cognizance of the said error, released an answer key only on the basis of the English translation of the question.”

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The petitioners claimed that the word “amplitude” was omitted in the Hindi translation, thus candidates had to apply a different formula and arrive at a different answer.

Since NEET UG 2021 has negative marking, the said question was a loss of 5 marks for the Hindi-speaking candidates and thus pushing their ranks further back.