O R D E R

PURUSHAINDRA KUMAR KAURAV, J. (ORAL)

1. The petitioner, vide the instant writ petition has prayed for the following reliefs:-

“a) issue writ/writs including a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the Respondent National Testing Agency to produce the original Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) along with the Answer Key Code E3 the Petitioner herein before this Honourable court and consequently recomputed the marks and publish fresh result with fresh rank merit list for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate)-2023;

b) Direct the 1st and 2nd Respondents to allot one MBBS Seat for the academic Year of NEET (UG)-2023 in any Government Medical College Situated in Kerala or Andhra Pradesh.”

2. The case of the petitioner is that she appeared in NEET (UG)-2023 [3]

examination conducted by respondent no.2-National Testing Agency (hereinafter referred to as 'NTA'). According to her, on 04.06.2023 the respondent no.2-NTA declared the Provisional Answer Key of NEET (UG)- 2023 examination and also directed that the candidates, who have objections to the Answer Key or Recorded Responses, may challenge the same as per the procedure. The Provisional Answer Key was uploaded on the official website of respondent no.2-NTA with the OMR sheet and recorded responses for NEET (UG)-2023 examination. On 06.06.2023, respondent no.2-NTA published the NEET (UG)-2023 examination final answer key on the official website. On 13.06.2023, respondent no.2-NTA declared the final result/ NTA Scores/ Rank of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (UG)-

2023.

3. According to her, the rank of the petitioner was shown to be 351 (All India Rank for Counselling) and total marks obtained were 697 out of 720 with the percentile of 99.9820955. She, therefore, submits that her rank was also recognized by Kerala State Medical Rank List-2023 and Dr. YSR University of Health Sciences, Vijayawada-08 NEET UG Rank wise list of the State of Andhra Pradesh.

4. The petitioner was however shocked and surprised while registering herself on the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) website when she was unable to move to the next step of registration. She then realized that the marks obtained by her were replaced on the website and instead of actual marks i.e. 697 out of 720, she was shown to have obtained 103 marks and, her All India Rank for Counselling was replaced to 1253032 with a percentile of 38.4043724. The petitioner thereafter made a complaint and since no steps were taken, therefore, she has filed the instant writ petition.

[4]

5. The respondents have filed their counter affidavit and have explained that the entire case of the petitioner is premised on false and fabricated document.

6. In paragraph 11 onwards of the counter affidavit filed on behalf of respondent no.2 NTA, it has been explained that the OMR sheet relied upon by the petitioner (Annexure-P7) has been tampered and modified. It is stated that the responses provided by the petitioner on the OMR sheet have been deliberately altered and modified with an attempt to claim higher marks in the examination.

7. It is the case of respondent no.2-NTA that the petitioner attempted 56 questions correctly and 121 questions incorrectly and as per the scheme of examination, she has been awarded 04 marks for each correct answer and one mark (-01) has been deducted for every wrong answer. Accordingly, the petitioner has been awarded 103 marks [(56x4)- (121x1)] out of 720. A copy of the final answer key of Test Booklet Code “E3” has been placed on record by respondent no.2 NTA.

8. Paragraph nos. 11 to 15 of the said counter affidavit read as under:-

“11.That in terms of Clause 14.2 of the Information Bulletin of NEET (UG) 2023, the Provisional Answer Key along with scanned images of the OMR Answer Sheets and Recorded Responses of all the candidates, including the Petitioner, were displayed through the web portal of NEET (UG) 2023 from 04.06.2023 to 06.06.2023 (up to 11:50 PM), for challenging Provisional Answer Key and OMR