A fresh controversy has emerged over alleged discrepancies in the evaluation of answer sheets in West Bengal, where a NEET-UG candidate from Hooghly has moved the Calcutta High Court, alleging serious irregularities in the marking of her examination and seeking a re-verification of her OMR sheet.
The case has come to light amid nationwide protests over the alleged NEET-UG question paper leak.
The petitioner, Shreya Mahanti of Dankuni in Hooghly district, claimed that her OMR sheet does not match the official answer key released by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
According to her petition, based on the answer key corresponding to her question paper series, she should have secured between 659 and 661 marks.
However, the result declared by the NTA awarded her only 289 marks, indicating a discrepancy of nearly 370 marks.
Hearing the matter, Justice Amrita Sinha directed the NTA to file its response without delay, noting that the counselling process for medical admissions is already underway across the country.
The court observed that the examination authority must explain the alleged discrepancy at the earliest.
The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for Tuesday.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Sabyasachi Chattopadhyay argued that OMR sheets are evaluated through a computerised process and there such a significant difference between the answer key and the awarded marks highly unusual.
He contended that a gap of nearly 370 marks could not be attributed to a technical error and alleged irregularities in the evaluation process.
NEET-UG is conducted for admission to undergraduate medical courses across India and carries a total of 720 marks.
Candidates receive four marks for every correct answer, lose one mark for each incorrect response, and receive no marks for unanswered questions.
Each candidate receives a unique question paper series and corresponding answer key, which is used for evaluation.
Following allegations of irregularities in this year’s examination, the NTA shared candidates’ OMR sheets through email and also published the official answer keys.
The petitioner has alleged that her OMR sheet does not correspond with the answer key issued for her paper series, resulting in an unusually low score.
This year’s NEET-UG was initially held on May 3 but was cancelled following allegations of a question paper leak.
A re-examination was conducted on June 21 for nearly 2.2 million candidates, and the results were declared on July 16.
Since then, several candidates from different states have raised concerns over discrepancies in their OMR sheets and evaluation, leading to multiple legal challenges in High Courts across the country.
The latest petition before the Calcutta High Court adds to the growing scrutiny surrounding the conduct and evaluation of the national medical entrance examination.