Variation In Signature On Admit Card And OMR Sheet Alone Not Sufficient To Establish Tampering: AP High Court Dismisses NEET Candidate's Plea

Noting that dissimilarity between signatures cannot be considered a ground to hold that there was tampering of OMR answer sheet, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Ravi Cheemalapti observed,

“It is relevant here to note that handwriting and signature of any person are subject to inherent inconsistencies. The physical and emotional state of person at the time of subscribing the signature plays a vital role and would contribute a lot to inconsistencies. The state of mind of the petitioner at the time of subscribing signature in exam room would definitely be anxious and stressed than at the time of subscribing the signature on Admit Card- Provisional. Therefore, variations in signatures between the Admit Card and the OMR answer sheet cannot be based as a ground to contend any tampering or swapping of answer sheets as sought to be contended by the learned counsel for the petitioner.”

The Court was dealing with a writ petition alleging that the Director General of National Testing Agency (NTA) (Respondent 4) published a mismatched OMR answer sheet with differing signatures and also highlighted variations in the number of answers filled.

The inconsistency came to the fore when the petitioner received an OMR sheet through email and registered post, which she alleged was not the one she had filled while taking the examination. She also alleged that although she had attempted all 180 questions and correctly answered 171, the OMR sheet she received showed only 11 questions attempted. She also argued that the thumb impression and signature on the disputed OMR sheet did not match hers. Despite submitting multiple representations requesting verification of the handwriting and thumb impression, the petitioner received no response.

On the other hand, the respondent State submitted that OMR sheets were placed in a pink envelope which was sealed in the exam room itself before all the candidates and signatures of two candidates as witnesses were taken in proof, thereby eliminating any possibility of tampering or swapping OMR sheets.

With respect to the dissimilarity between the signatures, the Court found that the signature of the petitioner in the Admit Card-Provisional along with her signatures on the writ affidavit and her vakalat, were all different and were not matching with each other. Accordingly, the Court held that dissimilarity between the petitioner's signatures on her Admit Card-Provisional and OMR answer sheet cannot be considered a ground to hold that there was tampering of OMR answer sheet filled in by her during examination.

Dismissing the petition, the Division Bench held,

“The observation reached supra coupled with the presumption regarding the practice of securing and sealing the answer sheets by respondent no.4-the National Testing Agency would render the contention of the petitioner regarding tampering of OMR answer sheets an impossibility.”

Case Details:

Case Number: WRIT PETITION NO: 14243/2025

Case Title: DUDEKULA SHAMEERA v. THE UNION OF INDIA

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