NEET 2025: HC orders NTA to form grievance redress panel

The Delhi High Court has directed the National Testing Agency to form a standing grievance redressal committee to address issues raised by candidates who suffer a loss of time due to technical issues, without their fault, while appearing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) examination.

The court’s direction came while dealing with a plea concerning NEET-UG 2025 in which a candidate, who appeared for the examination on May 4 at a Meerut centre, sought compensatory marks for allegedly suffering loss of time and mental disturbance due to irregularities in biometric verification at the exam centre.

It stated that constitutional courts cannot be expected to scrutinise CCTV footage for such candidates who have been prejudiced on account of loss of exam time for no fault of their own, noting that such cases ought to be examined by a body of experts transparently and fairly.

“It may be observed that this court has come across a few individual cases where the candidates suffered loss of exam time for the reasons not attributable to them,” the court said.

“Accordingly, the respondent No.1 or NTA is directed to constitute a standing Grievance Redressal Committee for the said purpose, if not already in place, where aggrieved candidates may approach for redressal of their grievances,” the court said in its Monday order.

The petitioner sought certain reliefs, including the awarding of compensatory marks in the medical entrance exam and preservation of CCTV footage from the concerned test centre.

The petitioner alleged that during the authentication process, before the exam, the biometric verification did not work at the test centre, and he was made to file an application requesting permission to enter the examination hall.

The plea said the petitioner was permitted to enter the examination hall only five minutes before the commencement of the test.