Education/Educational Institutions: MBBS/MD Course – National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-UG – Bi-lingual examination – Questions set in English with an option of an additional regional language – 24,000 students took examination in tamil language – Certain mistranslations in the tamil version for 49 questions and answers – High Court awarded four grace marks for the 49 questions, in total 196 grace marks – On appeal, held: Knowledge of the subject in English was considered a requirement and students were expected to resolve any ambiguity by reference to the questions in English Language – English version would be final because the entire education for MBBS/BDS courses throughout the country are taught in English – Simple reference to the English version would have clarified the imprecise word occurred in the Tamil version – Method adopted by the High Court is manifestly arbitrary and unjustified and cannot be sustained as the students who gave the examination in Tamil have been unduly benefited only because they opted to give examination in Tamil – Thus, the judgment of the High Court is set aside.
Allowing the appeals, the Court
HELD: 1.1 The Division Bench lost sight of the fact that the students appearing for the NEET-UG, 2018 Examination applied for admission to the course of MBBS/BDS which is entirely taught in English. The facility of a bilingual question paper was essentially meant for the students who were more familiar in Tamil than in English. Moreover, the expert body which set the examination seems to have contemplated the difficulty that may arise in translation of words from English to Tamil and had taken due precaution by inserting instruction that required the students to refer to the English version in case of any ambiguity. This implies that knowledge of the subject in English was considered a requirement and students were expected to resolve any ambiguity by reference to the questions in English Language. [Para 12][1172-E-H]
1.2 If one has a look at actual discrepancies in the questions that were said to have created confusion, it seems that the word with the imprecise meaning could have been easily discovered to be faulty and a simple reference to the English version would have clarified the same. A simple reference to the context in which the imprecise word occur in the Tamil version would show that the word could not have that meaning at all and there was obviously some mistake which needed to be resolved by reference to the English version. The errors were not factual and could have easily been answered by referring to the English Version. [Para 14, 15][1173-C-D, G]
1.3 This Court may not be understood to be taking the view that mistakes in translation, which give a disparate meaning, should be allowed to appear in question papers. The translation must be accurate. From the next academic year 2019-20, the NEET Examination will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), a society set up by the Government of India with the objective of conducting examination for grant of admission etc. The NTA is established to ensure that the methodology of translation to conduct the examination is improved. In order to make it foolproof, it is proposed that the translation will be done by subject experts who are proficient in both the languages i.e. the source language and the target language. The translation will be done from the target language to the source language and back to the target language. Thus, for example a question in English translated in Tamil will be re-translated back to English. This dual translation approach will remove any chance of ambiguity in the question paper. It is proposed that in case of any ambiguity between a regional language and English it will be the English version which will be final as held by this Court in the order dated 25.01.2018. The last mentioned clause is extremely significant to ensure that the students have some basic knowledge of English even if they are allowed the facility to write the examination in their regional language. Presumably, this is because the entire education for MBBS/BDS courses throughout the country are taught in English. [Paras 16, 17][1173-H; 1174-A-E]
1.4 Assuming that there was some justification in the plea that students were prevented from understanding the question and therefore could not answer properly, it is difficult to sustain the remedy provided by the High Court. Because of a mistake in translation which could have been detected and avoided by the students, it is unjust that all the students across the board who took the examination in Tamil have been awarded four marks for all the 49 questions without any reference to the answer of those questions. The consequence is equally unjust and unacceptable as the students who gave the examination in Tamil have been unduly benefited only because they opted to give examination in Tamil. It is said that there are some students who might have otherwise failed but for the addition of marks by the High Court most of these students have scored higher than those who gave the examination in English and other regional languages. This is mainly due to the blind allocation of 196 marks to every student who gave the exam in Tamil. [Para 18][1174-E-H; 1175-A]
1.5 In the impugned judgment no attempt was made to have the marks evaluated by an independent expert body instead the High Court resorted to blind allocation of full marks for each of the questions. No attempt was made to see whether the students have in fact attempted answers to the questions, which were claimed to be imperfectly translated and has proceeded to award the full marks for 49 questions to all candidates who had opted to give the examination in Tamil. The method adopted by the High Court is manifestly arbitrary and unjustified and cannot be sustained. [Para 19][1175-C-F]
1.6 The list of students who opted to give the NEET-UG, 2018 Examination in Tamil after the addition of 196 marks is startling. The High Court lost sight of the primary duty of Court in such matter that is to avoid arbitrary results. The judgment of the High Court is set aside. It is directed that from the year 201920 onwards the NEET-UG Examination would be conducted by the National Testing Agency and the bilingual examination would be conducted after the question paper is translated as set out according to the instructions in the affidavit signed by the Director, National Testing Agency. [Paras 20 and 22][1175-F-H; 1176-F-G]
Kanpur University, Through Vice Chancellor and Others v. Samir Gupta and Ors. (1983) 4 SCC 309 : [1984] 1 SCR 73 – distinguished.
Guru Nanak Dev University v. Saumil Garg and others (2005) 13 SCC 749 – referred to.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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