Madhya Pradesh High Court: In a batch of writ petitions challenging the alleged mismanagement by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in conducting the NEET-UG 2025 examination on 04-05-2025 in Indore, thereby, violating petitioners’ right to fair examination conditions, a single-judge bench of Pavan Kumar Dwivedi, J., acknowledged the petitioners’ grievances, however allowed the results to be declared for all candidates except for those who approached the Court.
In the instant matter, the core grievance arose from a power outage that lasted for around 1 to 2 hours at several examination centres in Indore during the examination hours (2:00 PM to 5:00 PM), allegedly causing candidates to write their papers under dark or poor lighting conditions. The petitioner contended that the Meteorological Department had issued a red alert and advisory on 03-05-2025 regarding severe weather, yet respondents failed to make any backup arrangements for power supply.
The petitioners argued that due to lack of power backup and gross mismanagement, they were forced to write the examination in extreme stress, which adversely affected their performance. It was pointed out that while only 50 petitioners approached the Court, this does not reflect the total number of aggrieved candidates as “ask of justice should not be based upon the number of grievances received…” and not all have resources or knowledge to file writ petitions. It was further contended that grievance data from more than 200 students had been collected via online forms and emails.
The petitioners highlighted that candidates aiming for courses like BDS, which do not require top ranks, were also affected, and a “numerical matrix” was irrelevant and incongruous in assessing the legitimacy of the grievance. It was further emphasised that the petitioner “is a rank deserving candidate… only due to the mismanagement and disruption… has been deprived of her fundamental right.”
However, the NTA submitted that the power outage had no bearing on the overall conduct of the examination and asserted that only 18 out of 5603 candidates from the 11 affected centres had registered formal grievances. The NTA highlighted that the total number of examinees in Indore was 27,264 and the number of complaints was minuscule.
It was stated that a team of statistical experts was constituted by the NTA, which analyzed OMR responses from all candidates in Indore and the findings suggested “no major deviation amongst the centres which are purportedly affected from the weather and unaffected centres.”
The Court’s previous interim orders —
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15-05-2025: The Court directed that NEET-UG 2025 results “shall not be declared” until the next hearing due to the power failure faced during the examination.
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16-05-2025: The Court modified the previous order, allowing declaration of results for all centres except the “affected centres at Indore,” pending further details from the respondents.
The Court modified its interim order and directed that the result may now be declared for all candidates except those who have filed writ petitions before the Court.
“Respondent No.1 is free to declare the result of all the candidates who have appeared in NEET-UG exam held on 04-05-2025 except the candidates who have filed writ petitions before this Court till further orders.”
The Court directed all parties to complete pleadings within one week and submit written submissions on record. The Court posted the matter for admission/final hearing on 23-06-2025.
[Laxmi Devi v. National Testing Agency, WP NO.17344/2025, Decided on 09-06-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Shri Mradul Bhatnagar, Shri Nitin Singh Bhati and Shri Chinmay Mehta, Counsel for the Petitioners
Shri Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India; Shri Himanshu Joshi, Deputy Solicitor General; Shri Rupesh Kumar and Shri Romesh Dave, Senior Advocates, Counsel for the Respondents