The Supreme Court on Friday disposed of a petition challenging the final answer key and result of NEET-UG 2025 exam held by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The Bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice R Mahadevan delivered the verdict on a petition filed by candidate Shivam Gandhi Raina, alleging that there was mistake in the answer given by the NTA to one question (Question No.136, Code No.47).
As per the petitioner, he secured an All India Rank of 6783 and a General Category Rank of 3195. If the incorrect answer was corrected, he would get five more marks, improving his position.
The petitioner sought direction to the NTA to correct the alleged error in the answer key as per the authoritative NCERT texts and revise the results accordingly. He further sought a stay on the counselling process as an interim relief.
Noting that the petitioner may be right on principle that there could be multiple correct answers, the Apex Court said that it would not interfere with the exam matter.
Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate R Balasubramaniam contended that the Apex Court interfered in the 2024 NEET-UG exam and ordered the correction of mistakes based on an expert report given by IIT-Delhi.
The Senior Counsel said the verdict would affect the career of many students. One mark difference would mean a lot. He requested the top court of the country to constitute an expert committee to ascertain the matter.
The Apex Court said it cannot interfere in an individual matter in a national exam. The interference in 2024 was due to widespread grievances regarding the discrepancies and shortcomings in the conduct of the exam, it added.
Filed through AoR Sriram Parakkat, the petition mentioned the question in dispute, which asked:
“Cardiac activities of the heart are regulated by:
A- Nodal Tissue
B- A special neural centre in the medulla oblongata
C- Adrenal medullary hormones
D- Adrenal cortical hormones
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
- A, B and D only.
- A, B and C only.
- A, B, C and D.
- A, C and D only.”
The petitioner submitted that option 3 was the correct answer as per the NCERT Class XI Biology text book.