CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday wondered why a special team should not be constituted to inquire into the allegations of OMR sheet tampering of the same candidate. The petitioner, KS Manoj from Karumathampatti in Coimbatore moved the court stating that he downloaded his answer sheet twice on NEET results on October 15 and October 17 from National Testing Agency (NTA) website and found disparities in the answers marked.

In his petition, he stated that he got 594 marks out of 720. However, it was 248 marks when he downloaded it again. During a hearing before Justice B Pugalendhi, the counsel for the Central Government Additional Solicitor General Sankara Narayanan submitted that the National Information Commission is an independent body which investigates allegations of OMR sheets tampering.

However, the counsel of the petitioner said that an independent probe is required with the involvement of a central premier investigation agency as there is a prima facie in this case with allegations of the entire system being vulnerable. Refuting the entire submissions, the counsel for the National Testing Agency submitted that all the sheets that are provided by the agency cannot be manipulated since they are chemically treated and in this case, there are signatures of two separate invigilators.

Justice Pugalendhi asked why an independent special team with experts with knowledge in cyber-security cannot be constituted to carry out the investigation. However, Narayanan said that such an investigation is required only when a prima facie is established in the case. The court sought the counsels to make their written submissions and adjourned the plea to February 18.