The University Grants Commission (UGC) has some good tidings for those candidates of the June edition of the National Eligibility Test (NET) who were disqualified for use of unfair means” on the premise that they had made corrections on their Optical Mark Reader (OMR) sheets when the rules stipulate against any changes.
According to a UGC press release, the results of candidates disqualified for making corrections would now be processed but marks would be deducted in the instances where corrections were made in the OMR sheets. This decision has been taken in view of the fact that though the UGC did stipulate that no corrections should be made, it did not specifically say candidates who made changes in their OMR sheets would be disqualified.
On declaration of the results of the June round of NET on October 21, several candidates complained that they had been “arbitrarily disqualified” under the category “unfair means” for either using whitener or scratching out an answer in their OMR sheets. Though the UGC did not put out a number of how many of the 5,74,448 candidates were disqualified under “unfair means”, the press release said a “large number of students” had submitted representations against the disqualification on these grounds.
Akhilesh Gupta, secretary, UGC, said this is a one-time concession and candidates for future NET exams would be disqualified if they made corrections in their OMR sheets.
