NEET Exam: Delhi HC Directs NTA To Form Panel To Address Candidates’ Loss Of Time Issue

NEET Exam

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the National Testing Agency to establish a standing Grievance Redressal Committee to address complaints from NEET candidates who lose exam time due to technical glitches beyond their control.

Justice Vikas Mahajan noted that constitutional courts cannot review CCTV footage for every affected candidate and recommended that such cases be handled by a specialized expert committee in a transparent manner.

The committee is empowered to devise suitable formulas to compensate candidates fairly.

This order came while hearing a plea from a NEET-UG 2025 candidate who suffered a 3 minutes 32 seconds loss of exam time due to biometric verification failure at the Meerut test center. The candidate was admitted late and had to step out mid-exam for repeated biometric verification attempts, causing mental distress.

The court directed the NTA to award grace marks using the Supreme Court’s normalization formula and update the candidate’s result within five days. It clarified that the revised rank will allow the candidate to participate in counselling without affecting already allocated seats.

The court emphasized fairness: all candidates must have equal time to complete the exam, and taking away time for technical faults cannot be justified by alleging that the candidate did not use the lost time effectively.