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Avni Prakash v. National Testing Agency (NTA) & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 781Decided 23 Nov 2021
Civil Appeal No. 7000 of 2021
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice A.S. Bopanna

Background

The appellant, a candidate with a benchmark disability (Dysgraphia), was entitled to an extra hour of compensatory time while taking the NEET medical entrance exam under official guidelines for persons with disabilities. Because her exam centre was unaware of this entitlement, her answer sheet was forcibly collected along with those of regular candidates, denying her the compensatory time. The Bombay High Court dismissed her plea for a fresh examination.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the appellant was wrongfully denied her statutory entitlement to compensatory time through no fault of her own, and that the NTA could not hide behind the scale of a national exam (over 15 lakh candidates) to avoid remedying an individual injustice. The Court declined to order a full re-examination, since that could unfairly affect other candidates' results, but directed the NTA to take corrective steps to remedy the harm to the appellant within a week, clarified that disability-related exam facilities cannot be restricted by applying a higher "benchmark disability" threshold, and directed better training of exam staff on disability accommodations going forward.

Lesson Learnt

Examination bodies running large-scale public exams cannot excuse a failure to provide legally mandated disability accommodations simply because millions of other candidates are involved: individual statutory rights must still be honoured and remedied.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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