NEET 2017: Supreme Court raps CBSE for setting different questions for regional language papers

The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for setting different question papers for students appearing for National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) in regional languages, ANI reported. The apex court observed that there should be a common question paper for all NEET examinations. The board found itself in a fix over the regional papers of NEET 2017 examinations conducted on 7 May, 2017, after candidates approached the courts since they found the level of difficulty of regional language papers higher than the English and Hindi papers. [caption id=“attachment_3895541” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Candidates who had appeared for the test in Gujarati medium moved the high court, seeking its direction to the CBSE to scrap the 7 May test and hold it afresh with the same set of question papers for English and Gujarati languages. On 14 July, the apex court declined to “nullify” NEET examinations, as it would affect over six lakh candidates who have passed the test to join professional courses. “In any case, it is very difficult to disturb the result,” a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said while refusing to accept the submission of counsel appearing for the petitioners, who said that three sets of question papers were given to the candidates in the exam in Andhra Pradesh. The petitioners had argued that the all-India ranking was given in the NEET exam, which postulates that every candidate should get the same question paper. On 23 July,  Union Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar said that vernacular question papers for the NEET will be a mere translation of the question paper in English. With inputs from PTI