HC dismisses 17-yr-old boy’s plea for NEET paper re-check

Cuttack: The Orissa high court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking a direction to the National Testing Agency (NTA) for the re-evaluation of the answer sheet of Subham Kumar Chand, who scored 639 out of 720 in the NEET (UG) 2024 exam.
The petition, which sought re-evaluation of the answer sheet claiming more marks in physics, was filed on Aug 5 by 17-year-old Subham, who was represented by his father, Ranjan Kumar Chand. Senior advocate Subir Palit, appearing on behalf of the NTA, argued that the petitioner could not claim re-evaluation by invoking the jurisdiction of the high court, as there was a stipulation in the NEET Examination Information Bulletin that rechecking/re-evaluation of answer sheets is not permissible.
Taking note of this, the two-judge bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice Savitri Ratho observed, “It is true that the high court is not denuded of its power to direct re-evaluation of answer books in rare and exceptional circumstances, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, even in the absence of such provision for re-evaluation. The said power, however, can be exercised in a situation that is rare and exceptional.” But the Bench ruled that, “In the given facts and circumstances as narrated in the petition, no case of rare and exceptional circumstance is made out, warranting this court’s interference.”