The Kerala High Court on Wednesday, August 3, sought the response of the National Testing Agency (NTA) to a plea seeking a standard protocol for conducting examinations across the country. The plea comes in the wake of an incident at a testing centre in xxx, where students were made to remove their bras before writing the NEET exams. A bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly asked the NTA to file a statement and listed the matter for hearing on Friday (August 5), lawyers associated with the case told PTI.
Besides formulation of a standard protocol for exams, the plea also seeks a direction to the NTA to permit the affected students to reappear for the exam, as they may not have been able to focus on the test that day due to the traumatic situation. The plea sought also free counselling for the students as well as compensation for the trauma and mental agony suffered by them.
Students who appeared at the Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology to write the NEET(UG) exam on July 17, were made to remove their bras as the metal hooks were a ‘safety concern’. A police complaint was filed by the father of one student, who pointed out that the NTA’s official bulletin does not mention a ban on wearing bras with metal hooks. The Mar Thoma college claimed that the persons who frisked the students were sent from the NTA, while the agency denied receiving any complaints about the same.
The police later arrested five persons based on the parent’s complaint — three who worked for an agency hired by the NTA, and two who worked for Mar Thoma college. All seven were released on bail by a lower court last week.