‘Power outage in NEET centres did not impact students’ performance’ 

There has been no impact on the performance of NEET candidates due to power outage at three different examination centres in and around Chennai on May 4, 2025, the National Testing Agency (NTA) told the Madras High Court on Tuesday.

Appearing before Justice C. Kumarappan who was seized of writ petitions filed by a group of candidates, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) AR. L. Sundaresan said, the NTA had conducted a scientific assessment and found no such impact.

He said the examination was conducted in broad daylight, and hence, the power failure did not make much of a difference.

Moreover, the students could not have marked the OMR sheet if there had been any impact, he added.

Stating that the number of questions answered by the students before the court was compared with the district average, he said, such comparison showed that the students had answered a higher number of questions than the district average.

However, the petitioners’ counsel wondered how such a defence could be taken by the NTA against the helpless students who had undergone a great deal of anxiety due to power outage, and consequently, could not perform to the best of their abilities.

After hearing both sides, the judge directed the High Court Registry to list the matter under the caption ‘For Orders’ on Friday.

Though the petitioners’ counsel insisted on restraining the NTA from releasing the NEET 2025 results till then, the judge refused to pass any such interim order.

The ASG told the court that a summer vacation judge had directed the NTA not to release the results until the agency conducted an inquiry and found out whether the power outage in the three centres had any impact on the performance of the candidates.

Now that the inquiry is over, there should not be any impediment on releasing the results, he said, and urged the court to dismiss all three writ petitions filed by students who had appeared for NEET at the centres in Avadi, Kunrathur, and K.K. Nagar in Chennai.

Published - June 04, 2025 12:50 am IST