NO GRACE MARKS FOR STUDENTS WHO ATTEMPTED NEET IN TAMIL, SAYS SUPREME COURT

The Supreme Court has quashed the Madras High Court directive to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to grant 196 grace marks to NEET students who opted to write the examination in Tamil language on account of error in translation.

The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court had on July 10 ordered the CBSE to grant 196 marks — 4 marks each for 49 erroneously translated questions.

The apex court had, in July this year, stayed the order of the high court and asked the parties to come out with a solution to deal with the situation, saying, "We cannot dole out marks in this fashion". The bench had observed that it appears that after the judgment, the students who opted for the Tamil language are in the advantageous position over others.

The "blind allocation" of 196 grace marks was done without application of mind, the bench said while quashing the HC order.

"Because of a mistake in translation which could have been detected and avoided by the students, we find it unjust that all the students get grace marks without any reference to the answer," the SC said.