{"id":3307,"date":"2025-08-29T15:36:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T10:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/?p=3307"},"modified":"2025-08-29T15:36:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T10:06:48","slug":"delhi-hc-quashes-grace-marks-for-biometric-delays-in-neet-ug-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/delhi-hc-quashes-grace-marks-for-biometric-delays-in-neet-ug-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Delhi HC Quashes Grace Marks for Biometric Delays in NEET-UG 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

National Testing Agency (Appellant) v. Satya Nishth & Ors. (Respondents)<\/strong>
\nLPA 490\/2025
\n(Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Sachin Datta, J)<\/h1>\n

The\u00a0controversy\u00a0arose\u00a0when,\u00a0during\u00a0the NEET-UG 2025 examination,\u00a0certain\u00a0candidates, including Satya Nishth (Respondent),\u00a0alleged\u00a0that they lost exam time\u00a0as\u00a0the biometric verification process\u00a0at\u00a0the centre was delayed. The Respondent,\u00a0like\u00a0other\u00a0applicants,\u00a0moved\u00a0the Delhi High Court in a writ petition.\u00a0The\u00a0single judge, in his order dated\u00a028th<\/sup> July 2025,\u00a0decided in the respondent\u2019s favour\u00a0that\u00a0the NTA\u00a0should\u00a0award\u00a0grace marks by\u00a0using\u00a0the normalisation formula\u00a0specified\u00a0by the Supreme Court in Disha Panchal v. Union of India. The judge\u00a0further\u00a0intimated\u00a0that\u00a0the\u00a0impacted\u00a0candidates\u00a0might\u00a0be\u00a0given\u00a0“supernumerary”\u00a0ranks (such\u00a0as\u00a0rank 1000A)\u00a0so\u00a0that\u00a0others\u00a0would not be displaced.<\/p>\n

The NTA\u00a0objected\u00a0to\u00a0this\u00a0ruling,\u00a0contending\u00a0that the\u00a0“Disha Panchal formula”\u00a0was\u00a0created\u00a0to\u00a0address\u00a0sudden technical\u00a0failures\u00a0in computer-based tests (CBTs),\u00a0like\u00a0power\u00a0outages\u00a0or system\u00a0failures. NEET-UG, however, is\u00a0done\u00a0in\u00a0offline OMR format.\u00a0In\u00a0its\u00a0view,\u00a0the NTA\u00a0applying the Disha Panchal formula\u00a0in\u00a0this case\u00a0would\u00a0disproportionally\u00a0manipulate\u00a0the national merit list and\u00a0skew\u00a0the inter-se ranking of\u00a0applicants\u00a0nationwide.<\/p>\n

The Division Bench\u00a0led\u00a0by\u00a0Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Sachin Datta\u00a0granted\u00a0the NTA’s appeal. The Bench\u00a0opined\u00a0that\u00a0the hold-up\u00a0on\u00a0account\u00a0of\u00a0biometric verification could not be equated with\u00a0the system\u00a0disruptions\u00a0envisioned\u00a0in Disha Panchal. Biometric checks were\u00a0indispensable\u00a0to\u00a0the credibility of the exam, and occasional delays in their completion did not justify post-exam adjustments to scores or ranks. The court also\u00a0did\u00a0not\u00a0find a\u00a0legal or procedural\u00a0ground\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0establishment of “supernumerary”\u00a0ranks,\u00a0which,\u00a0it\u00a0said,\u00a0could\u00a0stall\u00a0the\u00a0process of\u00a0counselling and\u00a0allotment\u00a0of\u00a0seats.<\/p>\n

Rather\u00a0than\u00a0giving\u00a0grace marks or\u00a0changing\u00a0the ranking, the Division Bench\u00a0instructed\u00a0the NTA to\u00a0work\u00a0on systemic\u00a0changes. It\u00a0directed\u00a0the\u00a0streamlining of\u00a0biometric verification\u00a0processes\u00a0to\u00a0reduce\u00a0delays\u00a0during\u00a0subsequent\u00a0tests. It also\u00a0instructed\u00a0the\u00a0formation\u00a0of a Standing Grievance Redressal Committee to\u00a0deal\u00a0with\u00a0exam-day\u00a0grievances\u00a0expeditiously\u00a0and uniformly,\u00a0eliminating\u00a0the\u00a0necessity\u00a0for case-by-case judicial intervention, like\u00a0going\u00a0through\u00a0CCTV footage\u00a0subsequently.<\/p>\n

The appeal was granted, as well as outstanding applications dealt with in the above terms.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National Testing Agency (Appellant) v. Satya Nishth & Ors. (Respondents) LPA 490\/2025 (Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Sachin Datta, J) The\u00a0controversy\u00a0arose\u00a0when,\u00a0during\u00a0the NEET-UG 2025 examination,\u00a0certain\u00a0candidates, including Satya Nishth (Respondent),\u00a0alleged\u00a0that they lost exam time\u00a0as\u00a0the biometric verification process\u00a0at\u00a0the centre was delayed. The Respondent,\u00a0like\u00a0other\u00a0applicants,\u00a0moved\u00a0the Delhi High Court in a writ petition.\u00a0The\u00a0single judge, in his order dated\u00a028th July 2025,\u00a0decided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judgement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3310,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3307\/revisions\/3310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}