CHENNAI: A Chennai student, Sathya Devar, on Saturday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court judgment ordering the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to award 196 marks to all students who took the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in Tamil. The HC also told CBSE to issue a fresh list of qualified candidates and directed that the counselling process be held in abeyance. It is learnt that the student’s case is likely to come up on Monday before the Chief Justice.
The student, who wrote the test in English, has secured a seat at Chengalpattu Medical College and prays he retains his seat.
A division bench comprising Justices C T Selvam and A M Basheer Ahamed had passed the order on July 10 following a Public Interest Litigation filed by T K Rangarajan, MP of the CPM seeking direction to provide 196 marks as grace marks for students who took the test in Tamil citing errors in translation in 49 out of the 180 questions this year.
About 24,000 students had opted to take the NEET in Tamil this year. Tamil Nadu has 3,328 medical seats in government and private medical colleges under the state quota. Apart from this, there are 516 seats for students under management quota. Over 2,447 students have already been admitted to 22 government medical colleges in the first round.