NEET-Constitute Committee To Resolve Grievances Of Candidates Suffering Loss Of Time Due To Technical Issues: Delhi High Court To NTA

While dealing with a plea concerning NEET-UG 2025, the Delhi High Court has directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to constitute a Standing Grievance Redressal Committee to resolve issues of candidates who suffer loss of time due to technical issues, without any fault on their part.

Justice Vikas Mahajan further ordered that the Standing Committee shall also be at liberty to devise a formula more suitable or appropriate for the examination.

The Court observed that it has come across individual cases where the candidates suffered loss of exam time for the reason not attributable to them.

It said that Constitutional Courts cannot be expected to view CCTV footages for each such candidate who has been prejudiced on account of loss of exam time for no fault of his.

Underscoring that such cases ought to be examined by a body of experts in a transparent and fair manner, the Court directed:

“Accordingly, the respondent no.1/NTA is directed to constitute a standing Grievance Redressal Committee for the said purpose, if not already in place, where aggrieved candidates may approach for redressal of their grievances. The Standing Committee shall also be at liberty to devise a formula more suitable/appropriate for the examination in question.”

The Court was dealing with a plea filed by a candidate alleging that due to interruptions and harassment mid-examination for re-verification of his identity credentials with respect to his Aadhaar, there was a loss of crucial exam time while he was taking his NEET (UG) 2025 examination.

It was his case that he had reached the examination hall on within the stipulated time but due to failure of biometric authentication system, his credentials could not be verified. It was alleged that the situation led to a delay in him being permitted into examination hall.

Disposing of the plea, the Court noted that it was the authorities' case that at the time of entry, the candidate was required to undergo biometric authentication however, the same could not be completed even after three attempts due to certain technical issues.

It further noted that no course of action which could have preserved procedural integrity and fairness was not followed by the authorities and the candidate was asked to complete the verification process again for which he had to leave his allotted seat.

“All candidates stand on equitable pedestal when they have been given the same amount of time for an exam. The candidate may utilize the said time as per his discretion in whatever manner he pleases. However, having taken away a portion of the time allotted to him and rationalizing the said act by alleging non-utilization of the same by the student would not be justified,” the Court said.

Noting that the candidate suffered a loss of time amounting to 03 minutes and 32 seconds during the exam due to no fault of his own, Justice Mahajan directed the NTA to award grace marks to him by applying the normalisation formula and the updated result or scorecard shall be communicated to him.

“It is made clear that on the basis of revised score and rank, the petitioner shall be eligible to participate in the remaining counselling and it shall not affect the seats already allocated,” the Court said.

Title: SATYA NISHTH v. NATIONAL TESTING AGENCY (NTA ) & ORS

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 891

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