The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has put an interim stay on the declaration of the results of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) while hearing a girl student's plea that her performance was affected due to power outage at her exam centre.
The exam for admission to undergraduate courses in medicine was held on May 4, when several parts of Indore faced a power outage due to bad weather.
The court's direction on Thursday could impact 21 lakh candidates in the country.
The petitioner, in her plea, sought that she be given a chance to reappear for the exam.
Justice Subodh Abhyankar, while granting interim relief to the petitioner, held that her entrance test was affected due to the power outage, and the authorities failed to provide proper conditions during the test.
"It is directed that till the next date of the hearing, the result of NEET-UG shall not be declared by the respondents," he said.
The petition is likely to be heard next on June 30.
The court has also issued a notice to the National Testing Agency (NTA), Central Government and Madhya Pradesh West Zone Electricity Distribution Company, which are among the respondents, and sought their reply within four weeks.
The court further noted that despite directives to the respondents to take instructions on the plea, none appeared for the hearing on Thursday.
Talking to PTI, the petitioner's advocate, Mridul Bhatnagar, said, "Many centres set up for NEET-UG in Indore did not have generators or other alternative arrangements for electricity, even though the weather department had already issued a warning of thunderstorms in the city on May 4." He said that when the weather conditions deteriorated on May 4, the power supply was cut for one to two hours at many centres in the city during the three-hour entrance exam, which affected the performance of the candidates.
Bhatnagar claimed due to the sudden power outage, the entrance exam was conducted in candlelight at some centres.
He said the results of the NEET-UG will be declared tentatively on June 14.
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