The Supreme Court slammed the CBSE for setting different question papers for students who were appearing for NEET 2017 in regional languages. In a statement given on Thursday, August 10, 2017, the court said that a common paper must be set for all aspirants regardless of the regional language that they have opted for.
The SC bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra also directed the board to define steps in its affidavit to conduct NEET exam for admission in medical and dental courses. The Supreme Court has also asked CBSE to maintain the difficulty of the exam by translating the questions set in the English paper to other regional languages.
The petition for the same was filed by NGO Sankalp Charitable Trust. It is the same NGO on whose plea the SC had ruled NEET to be the single entrance exam for admission to all medical courses.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising represented the NGO and said that the difficulty level of the questions asked in the NEET English exam and NEET regional language papers were not the same. He also said that the number of students selected through regional language exam was less as compared to those who were selected through NEET English.
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Jaising further added that the questions asked in regional language papers were not identical to those asked in the Hindi and English papers. The MCI informed the Supreme Court that the experts were unable to translate English questions to regional languages, therefore, questions of similar difficulty were asked in regional languages.
The court has given further dates for the case and said that the next hearing will take place on October 10, 2017.
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The SC had refused to nullify NEET 2017 on July 15, 2017, as it would have impacted more than six lakh students who sought admission in medical colleges. Close to 12 lakh candidates had appeared for the exam on May 7 in 10 languages including English, Hindi and regional languages.