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Talluri Srikar (Minor) Thr. His Father Talluri Srikrishna vs The Director, National Testing Agency & Ors.

Not available · 2024 INSC 694Decided 13 Sept 2024
Not available

Background

A minor NEET(UG)-2024 candidate, who suffers from a medical condition called hyperhidrosis (causing excessive sweating of the palms), was not permitted to carry a handkerchief into the examination hall. He claimed this inconvenienced him so much that he could not attempt many questions and even marked a wrong answer on the OMR sheet, and sought a re-examination similar to the one granted to 1,563 candidates who had lost time due to delayed question paper distribution. The Telangana High Court had dismissed his writ petition, and he appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed the Special Leave Petition, agreeing with the High Court's reasoning. It held that the petitioner's full allotted examination time was provided, unlike the 1,563 candidates who genuinely lost time, making his situation distinguishable. Since NEET answers are given by darkening circles on an OMR sheet (requiring minimal pen/pencil use), the denial of a handkerchief would not have materially affected his performance. He could simply have wiped his palms on his clothing. The Court also emphasized that courts must be cautious about entertaining individual grievances relating to public examinations, since doing so delays result finalization and can prejudice the larger public interest of all candidates.

Lesson Learnt

Courts require a demonstrable, material impact on a candidate's performance before interfering with public examination processes; a personal inconvenience that did not actually deprive the candidate of examination time is unlikely to justify a re-test, given the larger public interest in timely results.

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

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