COMMON NEET QUESTION PAPER FOR ALL LANGUAGES: CBSE TO SUPREME COURT

Move aimed at avoiding a rerun of last year’s fiasco

NEW DELHI: From this year, the question paper for the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test will be uniform across all languages, the CBSE told the Supreme Court on Thursday, a move aimed at avoiding a re-run of the last year’s controversy.

The question paper would be prepared in English and translated into Hindi and other regional languages, the lawyer for the Central Board of Secondary Education, which conducts the all-India exam for admission to medical and dental colleges, said.

Last year, 1.2 million candidates wrote the Neet in 10 languages, including English and Hindi, but there were allegations that the question paper in some regional languages was tougher than the one in English. The court had then suggested the CBSE to ensure questions were common to all languages.

Aspirants would be provided the question paper in the language they would chose in the application form. “The paper in vernacular languages will also contain questions in English so that there is no confusion,” the lawyer said. The bench, headed by justice Arun Misra, took the CBSE affidavit on record and disposed of the petition.

Neet was introduced in 2016 after the court called for a common test to avoid multiplicity of exams that would cost a lot of money and time.

Repeated attempts by private colleges, who made money by selling admission forms and conducting exams, and states to have the top court’s order modified failed with the SC remaining firm. After the exam on May 7, 2017 petitions were filed in the Gujarat and Madras high courts, alleging Gujarati and Tamil papers were tougher and the test should be held afresh.

The top court, however, declined to accept the pleas as 611,000 students of the 1.1 million candidates had cleared the test and counselling was on.

The CBSE had defended its move to have different sets of question papers, saying it was done to avoid a leak.