In a significant judgment, the Madhya Pradesh High Court on July 14, 2025, set aside the Single Judge’s direction to conduct a re-test of NEET-UG 2025 for students affected by a power outage during the exam held in Indore and Ujjain. The Division Bench, comprising Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Binod Kumar Dwivedi, allowed the appeals filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), stating that the re-examination was not justified based on the available evidence.
“It was unfortunate for the students that they had to attend the examination during such unpredicted disturbance,” the bench remarked. “However, the situation was beyond the control of the NTA and the local administration.”
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Background of the Case
The NEET-UG 2025 examination, conducted on May 4, 2025, saw participation from over 22 lakh candidates across 5468 centers in India. Among these, 27,264 students appeared from Indore and 4,025 from Ujjain. On the exam day, heavy rain and thunderstorms disrupted power supply in several centers, leading to petitions from 78 students who sought a re-test citing lack of proper lighting and backup arrangements.
The petitioners claimed that poor visibility due to power outages affected their ability to read questions and fill OMR sheets. They also highlighted emotional distress and inadequate response from the local authorities.
“We had no generators or inverters to support the examination environment,” students claimed, referring to reports and grievances sent to NTA.
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Arguments by NTA
The NTA, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, contested the Single Judge's order by presenting multiple reports from district officials, center superintendents, and an independent expert committee. According to the NTA:
- 10 centers reported no outage.
- 19 centers used functional generators or alternative lights.
- 18 centers had sufficient natural light.
- Only 2 centers experienced an outage of less than 2 minutes.
The NTA emphasized that statistical analysis showed no significant difference in performance between students at affected and unaffected centers. In fact, one of the top scorers (AIR-2) emerged from a center listed as affected.
“On average, students attempted 123 questions out of 180. There was no systemic failure to warrant a re-test,” argued the Solicitor General.
The agency also clarified that it had no existing guidelines for conducting a re-test and that such a step would disrupt the national academic calendar.
Court’s Observations
The Division Bench noted that although the students' distress was valid, the occurrence was sudden and unanticipated. The Court remarked that the weather conditions in early May were unexpected and not typical of monsoon activity in the region.
“Normally monsoon never reaches the eastern part of Madhya Pradesh in the first week of May,” the Court noted, adding that nobody was prepared for the sudden change.
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The judges highlighted that of over 27,000 candidates, only 70 filed petitions. The NTA’s proactive response and expert review demonstrated that the agency did not act as an adversary but handled the situation responsibly.
Quoting the Supreme Court's verdict in Aditi v. National Board of Examination, the Court emphasized that re-tests should only be ordered in cases involving systemic failure, which was not evident in this case.
“There is no guarantee that even if the re-test is done in all conducive circumstances or atmosphere, they will secure higher marks than this examination,” the Court stated.
While rejecting the re-test, the Court directed the NTA and local authorities to ensure full preparedness in future exams:
“NTA and local administration are directed to ensure continuity of power supply, proper seating, cooling arrangements, and a list of suitable centers must be maintained for important exams.”
Students who had filed writ petitions after June 3, 2025, the date of the provisional answer key release, were also denied relief. The Court stated that all students were similarly placed, but the entire batch could not be granted re-test due to lack of clear identification of affected individuals.