May 18, 2025 07:58 AM IST
The plea stated that the avadi exam centre was waterlogged due to heavy rains and the students were made to shift rooms in middle of the exam
The Madras high court on Saturday imposed an interim stay on the declaration of NEET-UG 2025 results following a petition by 13 candidates, who alleged the entrance exam for admissions to undergraduate medical medical courses had been disrupted at a centre in the Avadi area in Chennai due to a power cut and water logging.
The petitioners, all students from several districts of Tamil Nadu, who had appeared for the exam at the centre on May 4, told a vacation bench of the high court that the exam had thus, begun late. They also claimed the examination centre at Avadi got waterlogged due to heavy rains and the students were made to shift to another centre mid-exam.
When the petition came up for hearing on May 16, justice V Lakshminarayan enquired if the students were shifted to another centre while they were writing the exam and if there had also been a power cut? The judge then granted the interim stay on the declaration of results saying the students must be granted a chance to plead their case.
As per the petitioner students, at the Avadi centre, candidates had been instructed to report by 11 am for the 2pm exam. However, they were let inside the premises only at around 2.45pm. From 3pm to 4.15 pm, a power cut forced all candidates to continue writing in poor lighting conditions.
It had also been raining and soon after rainwater began entering the centre premises, forcing the authorities to halt the exams and shift the students to another centre. However, none of them were granted any extra time to compensate for the inconvenience and such loss of time.
Some of the petitioners have even asked that they be permitted to re-take the examination. In their petition, the students argued that such disruptions had violated their fundamental right to a fair opportunity under Article 21 of the Constitution. They urged the court to stay the result declaration and allow affected students to reappear for the exam.
The court reiterated that students deserved a chance to present their case and thus, adjourned the matter to June 2 after halting the declaration of the results until then.
Earlier this week, the Madhya Pradesh high court had also stayed the declaration of NEET-UG 2025 results after a similar plea from a student in Indore.
