Chennai: The Madras High Court has stated that it cannot impose a long-term ban on the publication of NEET exam results. Thirteen students from Tamil Nadu, including Sai Priya, Hariharan, and Akshaya, who appeared for the NEET exam on May 4, had filed a petition in the court. The petition stated that the National Testing Agency (NTA) conducted the 2025 NEET entrance exam on May 4 for admission to undergraduate medical courses at various centres across the country.
In the national-level exam, 464 students appeared for the NEET exam from 2 pm to 5 pm at the Srikendriya Vidyalaya CRPF centre in Avadi near Chennai. The exam started at 2 pm, but due to heavy rain, there was a power outage from 3 pm to 4.15 pm. No arrangements were made for temporary power service at the exam centre. "Therefore, we wrote the exam in low light and with great difficulty. We could not concentrate fully on the exam. Hence, should be ordered to conduct a re-examination for us," the petition demanded.
The Madras High Court, which conducted a hearing on this petition, had ordered the Central Government to respond to consider the student's request if there was a power outage at the exam centre. It had also imposed an interim stay on the publication of the exam results until then.
The case came up for hearing again on June 3. At that time, the lawyer appearing for the Central government argued, "All the students wrote the exam at the particular examination centre. They answered all the questions. The environment was just right for writing the exam."
The National Testing Agency has been very careful not to let the students be affected by the power outage. In all, 22 lakh students wrote the exam for one lakh medical seats across the country. It is not possible to conduct the exam for them alone. The court only ordered an investigation to see if the power outage affected them. If the students' mood was affected by the power outage, they would have answered only 40-50 questions. But the students answered all 80 questions. This shows that the students wrote the exam in a good mood.
The advocate appearing for the petitioners argued, "The doors of the examination centre were closed due to heavy rain. Therefore, the students could not write the exam properly due to a lack of adequate lighting. "If the students' allegations are found to be untrue after officials inspect the centre, the court may reject the request."
Following this, Judge C Kumarappan, who heard the case, said, "There was no impact on the students writing the exam. Since the power outage occurred during the day, nothing can be done about it. It is not possible to conduct a re-examination. Since the power outage occurred in good light, there will be no impact. I do not want to continue to extend the ban that has already been imposed. The verdict on this case will be delivered on June 6."
Read more: NEET UG 2025: Paper Was Tough, Say Examinees; Expect Lower Cut-Off
