The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday reserved its orders on a public interest litigation petition highlighting as many as 49 errors in this year’s National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) Tamil question paper.
A Division Bench of Justices C.T. Selvam and A.M. Basheer Ahamed, taking note of the submissions made by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which conducted the examination, reserved its orders.
The court had earlier directed CBSE to file a counter in the case explaining how it went about the translation of technical terms used in the Tamil version of the NEET question paper.
The CBSE, in its response to questions posed by the Bench, said that experts recommended by the respective State governments were engaged for the purpose of translation.
The question paper, which was set in English, was translated into 10 regional languages, including Tamil.
CBSE counsel G. Nagarajan contended that the responsibility of the board was limited to the conduct of the examination and declaration of the result.
Set in regional languages
The question papers were set in regional languages as teachers were already teaching science subjects in regional languages and had trained in the subjects. He argued that no candidate had complained about the paper and nowhere apart from Tamil Nadu had the question paper been challenged.
Senior counsel N.G.R Prasad, who appeared for petitioner T.K. Rangarajan, a CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP, pointed out that the non-availability of NCERT books in Tamil made it hard to comprehend the technical terms.
The Tamil terms were not accurate, making it even more difficult for the students to answer the paper.
The petition sought the grant of additional marks to Tamil medium students.
Tech4all, a non-governmental organisation, did a comprehensive study of the question paper and pointed out the errors.
