NEET-UG 2025: Supreme Court rejects candidates pleas seeking re-test over power outage in MP
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed two petitions filed by NEET-UG 2025 candidates, seeking a re-examination on the grounds that they suffered power outage in two centres of Madhya Pradesh during the examination, held on May 4, 2025.
The Bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice AS Chandurkar refused to interfere with the July 14 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on the grounds that the Division Bench examined the issue from all possible aspects, including the report of an independent expert committee.
The findings of the High Court were correct, observed the Bench, adding that it was not in the hands of the Court to pass orders for re-examination, since it was the prerogative of the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The Apex Court, however, directed that the students eligible for counselling should be allowed to register for the same and participate in the ongoing process.
Earlier on July 23, the top court of the country refused to stay the counselling process for NEET-UG 2025 candidates, stating that it would affect around 22 lakh students, who appeared for the examination.
A lady counsel, appearing for one of the petitioners, sought provisional permission for the aggrieved students to register for counselling.
The Bench said in other words, the petitioner was seeking a stay on counselling, which was not possible.
One of the other counsels clarified that the prayer was for re-examination. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union government, agreed to this demand.
The petitioners challenged the Madhya Pradesh High Court order of July 14, which refused to direct a re-test for the NEET-UG 2025 candidates affected by power outage at the centres in Indore and Ujjain.
A Division Bench, however, set aside the single-judge Bench order last week after taking into consideration an expert committee report, which said that even though there was power outage at some centres, there was sufficient natural light enabling the candidates to take the test.
On June 23, the single-judge Bench of Justice Subodh Abhyankar of the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the NTA to hold a re-test for all affected candidates who had submitted pleas before June 3.
Since the petitioners were put at a disadvantage for no fault of theirs, a re-test was necessary, observed Justice Abhyankar, adding that the counselling process would be subject to the re-test.
NTA challenged this verdict before a Division Bench of the High Court, which put an interim stay on the re-test on July 2 and quashed the original order altogether on July 14.
Taking into consideration an expert committee report, the Division Bench of Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Binod Kumar Dwivedi held on July 14 that even though there was power outage at some centres, there was sufficient natural light enabling the candidates to take the test.
It further observed that only 70 out of the 27,264 students had filed the original writ petitions, which was not a sufficient reason to overturn a national exam result.