SC refuses interim relief to NEET-UG 2025 candidates hit by MP power outage, says counselling won’t be stalled

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to grant any interim relief in two pleas filed by Neet-UG 2025 candidates, who suffered a power outage in exam centres in Madhya Pradesh.

The candidates had petitioned the top court against a July 14 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court refusing to order a re-test for them. A division bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and AS Chandurkar posted the pleas for resumed hearing on Friday.

The bench said it will not stay the counselling process for eligible candidates post Neet-UG results, which has been notified as noted by one of the petitioners' counsels. Justice Narasimha, speaking for the bench, clarified that individual grievances will be dealt with by the court, but the counselling process will not be stayed as it would adversely affect thousands of candidates.


On June 30, a single bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court had directed the National Testing Agency to conduct re-test of the Neet-UG 2025 for candidates affected by power outage at the centres in Indore and Ujjain, observing that the petitioners were put at a disadvantage for no fault of theirs. The single bench also observed that the counselling process will be subject to the re-test.

However, last week, a division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court set aside the single bench decision. It took note of an expert committee report, which opined that even though there was power outage at some centres, there was sufficient natural light enabling the candidates to take the test.

Aggrieved, some of the students moved the Supreme Court.