NATIONAL TESTING AGENCY Vs. LAXMI DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since the subject matter of these writ appeals is identical in nature, with the joint request of the parties, they are analogously heard and decided by this Court's order. These batch of writ appeals are filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA) as well as by the students under Sec. 2(1) of Madhya Pradesh Uchcha Nyayalaya (Khand Nyaya Peeth Ko Appeal) Adhiniyam, 2005 being aggrieved by the common order dtd. 23/6/2025 passed by the Writ Court in Writ Petition No. 17344 of 2025 and connected petitions filed by 78 students who appeared in the NEET (UG) 2025 examination held on 4/5/2025 from various centres located in Indore and Ujjain.

(2.) The writ petitions were filed by the students seeking the relief of re-test or any suitable alternative solution because in the examination of NEET (UG), 2025 on 4/5/2025 a severe thunderstorm and rainfall caused power outage during examination hours in several examination centres in Indore as well as in Ujjain which adversely affected their ability to attempt the paper in optimal conditions. According to the petitioners, there was a visibility issue in these centres due to the lack of light or very dim light. To address such eventualities, there was no proper arrangement for backup lights during power cuts or failures by the NTA and local administration. The writ petitions were contested by the appellants with an admission that though there was a power outage during the examination in question, but denied that natural light was not sufficient to answer the questions by the students and adversely affected their ability and concentration.

(3.) The Writ Court vide final order dtd. 23/6/2025 has allowed the petitions and directed NTA to conduct a re-examination for all petitioners/students who had approached the Court before the release of the Provisional Answer Key on 3/6/2025 (cutoff date) while denying re-test to those petitioners/students who had approached the court after 3/6/2025 and also clarified that NEET rank of the petitioners giving re-test would be solely based on the marks obtained in the re-test.