A week after the Madurai bench of Madras High Court ordered the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to award 196 grace marks to the students who had attempted National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2018 in Tamil, the CBSE has moved the Supreme Court against the order. This move comes ahead of the deadline given by the court to CBSE to revise the rank list based on the changed scores. The High Court order was issued based on a petition filed by TK Rangarajan, a CPI (M) Rajya Sabha MP. The MP had said that nearly one-third of the question paper was translated wrongly into Tamil and had sought the court to direct the admissions to be held either based solely on the Class XII marks of the students or award 196 grace marks to students who had attempted the exam in Tamil. He had further filed a caveat in the Supreme Court on Wednesday anticipating the Central Board of Secondary Educationâ€™s appeal, seeking a stay on the Madras High Court ruling on NEET. A bench of Justices CT Selvam and AM Basheer Ahamed had on July 6 pulled up the CBSE for releasing the results despite knowing about the PIL, observing "Why did they do so?" Hitting out at CBSE, the bench stated that the Board was acting 'autocratic' when it came to errors in the Tamil version of NEET. In response to the CBSEâ€™s submission, the bench observed, "How do you decide the right answers for the questions based on a majority view? The CBSE is accepting even wrong answers under the pretext of a majority decision. How is it that in Bihar state so many students got through the examination?" NEET was conducted across India on May 6. Around 24,000 students took the exam in Tamil. The rank list for medical counselling in Tamil Nadu was released by the TN Department of Health and Family Welfare on June 28. The first round of counselling for admissions to TN medical colleges began on July 1 and ended on July 7. The cut-off under NEET for the unreserved category this year stood at 119 and the cut-off for OBC, SC and ST stood at 96 out of the total 720 marks.<doc-sep>CBSE Contemplates Challenging Madras High Court's NEET Grace Marks Order CBSE is mulling over the recent Madras High Court order to award grace marks to NEET candidates in Tamil. CBSE might challenge the Madras High Court order to award 196 grace marks to all those students who appeared for NEET exam in Tamil language, sources in the HRD Ministry said. The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court, on July 10, had directed CBSE to grant 4 marks each for 49 erroneous questions, 196 in total, to all the students who appeared for the exam in Tamil Language. Recommended: Join NEET Crash Course to Improve Your Preparation Level & Strengthen Most Asked Concepts in NEET Start Now The petition filed by senior CPI(M) leader and Rajya Sabha MP T K Rangarajan sought full marks for all the 49 questions on the grounds that key words in the Tamil question paper were translated wrongly from English ending in confusion among the students. By submitting details, you are registering on Careers360 "CBSE is contemplating to move the higher court, but a final call will be taken after holding consultations with various stakeholders and seeking legal opinion," a source in the ministry said. However, a senior health ministry official said that they have not been approached by the board yet and they are free to decide on the future course of action. The official bulletin for NEET exam said that candidates who opt for the exam in any regional language will be provided bilingual test booklet. The bulletin also said that in case of any ambiguity in translation, the english version will be treated as final. CBSE is contemplating to highlight this aspect and challenge the Madras High Court order. The NEET exam is conducted for admissions to MBBS/BDS courses in colleges run with the approval of Medical Council of India/Dental Council of India under the Health Ministry. The exam was conducted on May 6 in which about 1.07 lakh candidates appeaerd for Tamil Nadu and approximately 24,000 appeared for the test in Tamil. The result for NEET 2018 exam was released on June 4. In response to the petition, Madras High Court has also directed CBSE to issue a revised rank list. The second phase of counselling for All India quota seats have been postponed by MCC, consequently. Click here for more Education News<doc-sep>Madurai bench of the Madras High Court had ordered the CBSE to grant 196 marks - 4 marks each for 49 erroneous questions - in the Tamil version of NEET 2018 Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday assured its support to NEET students from the state in the wake of the Madras High Court's direction to CBSE to grant grace marks and said its future course of action will be based on the steps taken by the central board. On Tuesday, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court had ordered the CBSE to grant 196 marks - 4 marks each for 49 erroneous questions - in the Tamil version of NEET 2018 to those who took the exam in the regional language. Health and Family Welfare Minister C Vijayabaskar said the government was in "favour" of Tamil students vis-a-vis the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET). He said "we have not received" a detailed copy of the judgement. "The (high court) direction has been given to CBSE only. Action will be taken on behalf of our government based on the further steps to be taken by CBSE," he told reporters in response to a query in this connection. Meanwhile, the CPI welcomed the court verdict, with the party's state secretary R Mutharasan urging the CBSE to implement the court order. "The state committee of the CPI welcomes the high court order," he said in a statement. Referring to reports of CBSE mulling an appeal against the verdict, he said this would amount to "confirming the social injustice meted out" to the medical aspirants. He said CBSE should not do so and urged the board to implement the order. Passing the orders on a public interest litigation, the high court had directed CBSE to consequently revise the list of eligible candidates and publish it afresh. The petitioner, senior CPM leader and Rajya Sabha MP TK Rangarajan had sought full marks for the 49 questions, saying key words in Tamil questions were wrongly translated from English and this caused confusion among the students. There were 180 questions with a total mark of 720 in the NEET. The judges said the students who took the NEET for admission to medical and dental colleges in Tamil should be suitably compensated to provide a level-playing ground. The CBSE conducted the NEET on 6 May in 136 cities in 11 languages, the results of which were announced on 4 June. In Tamil Nadu, about 1.07 lakh candidates took the test across 170 centres in 10 cities.<doc-sep>The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday assured students who appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test of its support, a day after the Madras High Court directed the Central Board of Secondary Education to grant 196 grace marks to those who wrote the exam in Tamil. “The High Court direction has been given to CBSE,” state Health and Family Welfare Minister C Vijayabaskar told reporters, according to PTI. “Action will be taken on behalf of our government based on the further steps to be taken by CBSE.” Vijayabaskar said the government was yet to receive a copy of the order, but added that the government was in favour of Tamil students taking the test. The court made the ruling on Tuesday based on a plea by Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP TK Rangarajan, who said that full marks should be given for 49 questions, which he said were mistranslated from English to Tamil. The High Court also ordered the CBSE to revise the list of rank holders within two weeks. Its decision will benefit around 24,000 students. The Communist Party of India welcomed the order. Its Tamil Nadu Secretary R Mutharasan urged the education board to implement it. Nearly 13.3 lakh students took the test at 2,255 exam centres across 136 cities on May 6 for admission to MBBS and BDS courses in colleges approved by the Medical Council of India and the Dental Council of India. The exam results were published in June and the counselling process has already begun. In Tamil Nadu, about 1.07 lakh candidates took the test across 170 centres in 10 cities, PTI reported.<doc-sep>
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is contemplating to move the Supreme Court against an order by the Madras High Court granting grace marks to those who wrote this year's NEET exam in Tamil, sources in the HRD Ministry said today. Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government has cancelled the medical counseling scheduled from July 16 following Madras HC order awarding grace marks to Tamil medium students in NEET. The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) isn’t releasing the results of the second phase of the counselling today on July 12. A note on the official website says: “in compliance of the directions of High Court of Madras, Madurai, the online undergraduate counselling for the session: 2018 including the declaration of second round result will be kept in abeyance till further orders.” The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court had on July 10 ordered the CBSE to grant 196 marks--4 marks each for 49 erroneous questions--in the Tamil version of the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET). The petitioner, senior CPI(M) leader and Rajya Sabha MP T K Rangarajan, had sought full marks for the 49 questions, saying key words in Tamil questions were wrongly translated from English which caused confusion among students. There were 180 questions carrying 720 marks in total in the NEET. "CBSE is contemplating to move the higher court, but a final call will be taken after holding consultations with various stakeholders and seeking legal opinion," a source in the ministry said. Another source said senior officials from both CBSE and the ministry were holding consultations in the matter. However, a senior health ministry official said they have not been approached by the CBSE and that the "body is free to decide on the future course of action". The information bulletin of NEET exam had said that "candidates opting for regional languages would be provided bilingual test booklets in selected regional languages and in English. In case of any ambiguity in translation of any of the questions, its English version shall be treated as final". Sources said the CBSE could highlight this aspect while challenging the high court order. The NEET exam is conducted for admissions to MBBS/BDS courses in colleges run with the approval of Medical Council of India/Dental Council of India under the Health Ministry. The CBSE conducted the NEET on May 6 in 136 cities in 11 languages, the results of which were announced on June 4. In Tamil Nadu, about 1.07 lakh candidates took the test across 170 centres in 10 cities. Passing the orders, the high court had directed CBSE to consequently revise the list of eligible candidates and publish it afresh. The judges said the students who took the NEET for admission to medical and dental colleges in Tamil should be suitably compensated to provide a level-playing ground.