In a significant ruling upholding the principle of equality, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to conduct a retest of the NEET-UG examination for 75 candidates who were adversely affected by power outages at exam centres in Indore and Ujjain on May 4.
Justice Subodh Abhyankar of the Indore bench passed the order on June 23, noting that the candidates had been placed at a disadvantage “without any fault on their part.” The court invoked Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before law, to grant relief to the petitioners.
The affected candidates had approached the court alleging that a power failure during the NEET-UG exam, compounded by poor weather conditions, disrupted their performance and compromised their chances in the highly competitive medical entrance test.
“The court has recognised that the outage impacted the candidates unevenly—even within the same examination centre, some students sat in well-lit areas while others struggled in the dark,” said advocate Mridul Bhatnagar, who represented the petitioners. “This ruling ensures a level playing field.”
The court directed the NTA to conduct the retest “as expeditiously as possible” and clarified that only the scores from the retest should determine the petitioners’ ranks. However, the court limited the relief to those who filed petitions prior to the declaration of the provisional answer key.
During the hearings, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the NTA, submitted that alternate power arrangements, including candles, emergency lights, and inverters, had been made at most centres and that disruptions were promptly addressed. A committee report cited by Mehta supported the NTA’s claim that power supply was restored swiftly upon complaints.
Despite this, the court found merit in the petitioners’ claim that the conditions were not uniform and that the disruption had a tangible impact on some students’ ability to perform.
