'Have Sympathy For Students, But Mishaps Happen': MP High Court On Power Outage During NEET-UG Test; Order On NTA's Appeal Reserved

The Madhya Pradesh High Court today reserved its verdict on NTA's appeal against a single judge's direction to hold a re-test of the NEET-UG 2025 exam for the candidates who were affected by a power outage at the centres in Indore and Ujjain. The bench had earlier stayed the direction.

After hearing the parties at length, the division bench of Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Binod Kumar Dwivedi orally observed,

"Disturbance to the students is not disputed; we also understand the issue of stress faced by the students in such a situation. We have full sympathy for students. Many have taken drop also, we understand their problem. But see, 22 Lakhs students had appeared, all of them can't be selected. Hard Luck Bad Luck. Only one plane crashed (referring to the Ahmedabad Air India crash), but thousands fly every day. One girl missed the flight by ten minutes, but she was saved. So it happens."

Independent committee report on the power outage affecting students' performance

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the National Testing Agency, presented a report drafted by an independent committee, which showed that despite the one-hour power outage at the 19 affected centres, the candidates had sufficient natural light to complete the exam, and Diesel Generator (DG) sets were also available in some centres.

The committee comprised one professor from IIT-Delhi and two professors from the University. "They were neutral people...report suggests that it can be said with 99% confidence that there is no difference between the affected and non-affected centres," he argued, terming the plea for re-test as a "second bite at the cherry".

He further submitted that NTA cannot be asked to produce CCTV footage of the centre since, they were rendered dysfunctional during the power outage.

Advocate Rupesh Kumar, appearing for the aggrieved student's however, submitted that the single judge had "outrightly rejected" the statistical analysis done by the committee. "Light was not sufficient to even read the question...given the storm, rain, there was no sunlight," he claimed.

Whether re-examination is permitted under law?

The bench at this juncture remarked that the factum of power outage is undisputed and asked the counsel whether re-examination in such a situation is permissible, particularly under the guidelines as per which the exam was conducted.

"Re-exam can be undertaken in exceptional circumstances", Kumar responded.

The SG submitted that approximately 22.9 lakh candidates took the examination, with 27,064 from Indore. However, only 75 candidates from Indore had approached the court, remarking, "why should lakhs of students be disturbed?". He added that this was not an extraordinary situation where a re-test could be conducted.

Kumar, however, referred to Dr. Aditi & Ors. v. National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences & Ors., where the Supreme Court, while dealing with NEET-PG cases, had orally remarked that when a legitimate grievance is raised, it is not relevant that only a few persons are seeking relief.

"So their argument that only a few students have come is not convincing," Kumar added.

The SG then submitted that there are no guidelines with the NTA for conducting a re-test. He added that the re-test will delay the academic session, which starts after counselling, which will not occur until results are out.

Did students have proper light despite power outage?

During the hearing, the SG had argued that NEET is a multiple-choice type question format paper; no descriptive answers are to be given. "I am not supposed to write long answers, like we used to in our days...In an MCQ-type question, you have to darken one circle out of 4 options, but if the light is not proper, darkening would also get affected, which is not the case here," the SG argued.

However, Senior Advocate Aditya Sanghi, also appearing for the students, said there was no power backup at the exam centres and candle lights had to be provided.

"We are in 2025, and selected centres had no power backup? Why candle light was provided? It speaks for itself that it was completely dark."

The Court then orally enquired if any student left the exam venue after the power outage. However, the counsel responded in the negative.

He continued, "Maybe there can be no test, I agree. NTA must should do something, including compensating them. Candidates have burnt midnight oil. NTA must compensate either by way of grace-marks or otherwise."

SG then pointed out that one student from the affected centre got AIR 2, whereas there are 11 candidates from the affected centres who are toppers and scored more than 600 marks. This, he said, indicates that the power outage did not affect students' performance.

The Respondent-counsel however, submitted that not every student has the same "level of efficiency" as the one scoring AIR 2. Some students can solve the paper early, and they may not have been affected by the power outage that occurred later, he claimed.

SG then submitted that there is a practical difficulty in awarding grace marks. He said, "If grace marks are to be given, who should be given the benefit of it? If AIR 2 is also given grace marks, he would be AIR 1."

When the Respondents' counsel submitted that NTA has the resources to conduct a re-exam, the SG responded, "It is not a question of deficiency of either infrastructure or resources. Is it possible for NTA to conduct a re-exam, because in such scenarios, identification of the students is impossible. Do we have any cut off mark? Unless a precise case is there as to how many students were affected, which is rebuttable, we can't do anything."

On the Madras HC judgment refusing re-exam due to power outage

The SG had relied on the Madras High Court's recent judgment refusing similar pleas seeking re-exam on alleged grounds of disruption due to heavy rainfall, power outage and poor management by the center.

However, counsel appearing for students submitted, "In the Madras HC judgement, it was observed that enough light was there, but here in Ujjain and Indore, no such light was there. The situation was totally different here. NTA, in 2025, did not provide for power backup."

Who should be allowed to take the re-exam, if any?

During the hearing, the judges queried if aggrieved students want a re-examination for the entire centre, or for themselves. To this, their counsel responded, "We want a re-examination for us. But others can be given an option to take the re-test. For the centres which are affected and those students who could not come before the court, can be given a chance."