NEET aspirant submitted forged documents, NTA free to take legal action: HC on student who alleged OMR was torn

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday said that a NEET aspirant who had alleged in her petition that the NTA failed to declare her result and that her OMR answersheet was found torn had submitted forged documents and the NTA can take legal action in the matter. This came after the National Testing Agency, on the direction of the high court's Lucknow bench, produced before it the original OMR answer sheet of the student which was found to be intact.

The student, Ayushi Patel, in her petition, claimed that NTA sent her a communication saying her result would not be declared as her OMR sheet was found torn. She had also posted a video on social media repeating the allegations that caused a stir amid the ongoing row over claims of irregularities in the conduct of the undergraduate medical entrance exam NEET.

The petitioner had demanded that her OMR sheet be evaluated manually. She had also called for an inquiry against NTA and demanded that the counselling for admission be stopped.

A vacation bench of Justice Rajesh Singh had on June 12 asked the NTA to produce the original records of the student.

In compliance with the order, NTA's Deputy Director Sandeep Sharma presented the original documents of the student along with an affidavit.

After seeing the documents, the court found that the student had filed the petition on the basis of forged documents. The court termed it regrettable and said that the NTA is free to take legal action in the matter.

At the same time, the advocate of the petitioner requested permission to withdraw the petition, which the court accepted.

The NTA told the court that the decision to take legal action against the petitioner student had already been taken by the NTA.

The court said that the petitioner has submitted forged documents, and in such a situation this court cannot stop NTA from taking legal action against the student.

Reacting to Patel's video, which was shared by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi among others, the NTA had on June 12 said her paper is still intact and it's a case of forgery on the part of the candidate whose actual score is lower than claimed.

"No torn OMR answer sheet was sent from any official NTA email, and the actual OMR is available and not torn. Moreover, all results are available online," said an official.

The NTA had countered the claims of incorrect result on social media stating, "Regarding the viral video featuring Ms XXX, claiming discrepancies in NEET (UG) 2024 scoring and receiving of torn OMR answer sheet, NTA clarifies that no torn answer sheet was sent via an official NTA ID. OMR answer sheet is intact and scores are accurate as per official records..."