Delhi High Court dismisses candidate's plea alleging out-of-syllabus question in NEET

New Delh: The Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition by a NEET candidate alleging 'out-of-syllabus' question in the entrance examination, saying it cannot doubt the wisdom of experts and substitute its opinion in its place.

The high court said courts are not experts in the subject matter and should only adjudicate based on the law on the subject and its application in the facts and circumstances of the particular case.

The petitioner claimed one question in the physics section was based on 'radioactivity' when 'radioactivity topic' was not a part of the syllabus for this year's NEET-UG.

The court noted that the particular question was placed before the subject experts constituted by the exam-conducting authority National Testing Agency (NTA) and they have given their opinion that the syllabus includes 'composition and size of nucleus' and 'atomic masses' in Unit No. 18 under the chapter 'Atoms and Nuclei'.

"The subject experts have negated the challenge of the petitioner. Therefore, this court is of the opinion that it cannot substitute its own understanding for that of the experts, who are better equipped to address the complexities and nuances of the subject," Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said.

"This court is of the opinion that when academic and subject experts of NTA have opined that the impugned question has been prepared from the prescribed syllabus of NEET (UG)-2024, this court cannot doubt the wisdom of the experts and substitute its opinion in place of the same," the court added.

Besides, the high court also dismisses two separate petitions by two other candidates claiming the answers to certain questions were wrongly recorded.

The court said where the error is not self evident, it cannot re-appreciate, re-analyse or re-assess for itself the correct answers to the disputed questions.

The NEET-UG 2024 examination was held by the NTA on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates took it. The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the evaluation of the answer sheets got completed earlier.

The Supreme Court, on July 23, had refused to cancel the NEET-UG 2024, observing that there was no material on record at the present stage to prove that a systemic leak of question papers has destroyed the sanctity of the exams.

The NEET-UG examination is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.