NEET-UG 2025: Madhya Pradesh HC (DB) Stays Single Judge's Re-Test Order For Candidates Affected By Power Outage

A Division Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday (July 1) STAYED the operation of an order of the single judge, passed on June 23, directing the National Testing Agency (NTA) 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.

A Bench of Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Binod Kumar Dwivedi passed the order while hearing a writ appeal filed by the NTA, wherein it was brought to the Court's attention that multiple writ appeals, both against the grant and denial of relief in the batch of petitions decided by the Single Judge, are likely to be filed and the same will have to be heard together.

It was further submitted that until all such matters are placed before the Division Bench, the NTA would be unable to implement the writ court's direction for a re-testing of the limited number of petitioners who were granted relief.

Taking note of this submission, the Division Bench stayed the operation of the impugned order dated June 23, 2025, insofar as it pertained to the re-testing of the writ petitioners, till the next date of hearing ( July 10).

Importantly, the Division Bench also directed that the order of the Single Judge that any counselling done on or after July 1, 2025, shall be subject to the outcome of the petitions, will continue to remain in force.

Background 

On June 30, a bench of Justice Subodh Abhyankar had allowed a batch of writ petitions filed by NEET-UG 2025 candidates claiming to have been disadvantaged due to power failure at their centres in Indore and Ujjain.

Noting that the petitioners were put at a disadvantage for no fault of theirs, the Court had remarked thus:

"This Court is of the considered opinion that the petitioner/s has/have made out a case for interference under Article 14 as her/they, without there being any fault on their part, was/were put into a disadvantageous position due to power outage, which condition did not prevail in the other examination centre or even in the same centre where some of the students were sitting at favorable spots having sufficient natural light".

Interestingly, to ascertain the difficulty which the petitioners faced, the single judge had, during the hearing, switched off the lights of the Courtroom. The Court noted that the presence of large windows in the Courtroom allowed the passage of a limited amount of natural light, in a dim manner. However, the exam centres may not have such large windows, the Court noted, inferring the difficulties faced by the petitioners.