Short-Lived NEET Success? Court Orders ‘Grace Marks’ For Tamil Candidates And Fresh List Of Medical Admissions

It seems Tamil Nadu’s National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) conundrum is not over, yet.

In a ruling that will disrupt ongoing MBBS and BDS admissions, the Madras high court has ordered that 196 “grace marks” be awarded to more than 24,000 students who wrote the NEET-2018 in Tamil for MBBS admissions as 49 questions (each carrying four marks totalling 196) were inaccurately framed and wrongly translated. As a result, the court stayed ongoing MBBS admissions and gave Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) two weeks to prepare a fresh list of candidates.

Rapping the CBSE for the errors, a division bench of Justice C T Selvam and Justice A M Basheer Ahmed said: “The list of qualified candidates shall be kept in abeyance, as would the counselling, pending publishing details of the qualified candidates afresh.”

The order has taken the smile off successful NEET candidates who have already got seats following the first round of counselling, while the Tamil candidates are celebrating – most of whom may secure MBBS/BDS admissions even if they had scored zero.

Others, awaiting the second round of counselling, fear that this order may scuttle their chance to gain admission to medical or dental colleges.