The Allahabad High Court clarified on Tuesday that Ayushi Patel, a NEET aspirant, who had alleged in her petition that the National Testing Agency (NTA) failed to declare her result and claimed her OMR answersheet was torn, had submitted forged documents.

The court stated that NTA could pursue legal action in response. This development followed the Lucknow bench of the High Court directing NTA to present the original, intact OMR answersheet of Ayushi Patel, which was subsequently produced before the court.

Ayushi Patel, in her petition, had asserted that the NTA informed her that her result would not be disclosed due to the torn state of her OMR sheet. She had also shared these allegations through a social media video, contributing to ongoing discussions regarding alleged irregularities in the administration of the NEET exam.

At the behest of the petitioner, who sought manual evaluation of her OMR sheet and urged for an investigation into the National Testing Agency (NTA), as well as a halt to admission counselling, a vacation bench headed by Justice Rajesh Singh had instructed NTA on June 12 to furnish the student's original records.

In adherence to this directive, NTA's Deputy Director, Sandeep Sharma, appeared before the court and submitted the student's original documents accompanied by an affidavit.

Upon reviewing the documents, the court determined that the student had filed the petition based on forged documents. The court expressed regret over this discovery and stated that the NTA was entitled to pursue legal action in response.

Simultaneously, the petitioner's advocate requested permission to withdraw the petition, a request which the court granted.

NTA informed the court that it had already decided to initiate legal proceedings against the petitioner.

The court emphasized that since the petitioner had submitted forged documents, it could not prevent NTA from proceeding with legal action against the student.

In response to Ms. Patel's video, which was widely shared including by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, the NTA clarified on June 12 that Ms. Patel's OMR sheet remains intact. The agency asserted that the situation involves forgery on the part of the candidate, whose actual score is lower than what was claimed. This statement underscores the NTA's position regarding the authenticity of the allegations made against them.

"No torn OMR answer sheet was sent from any official NTA email, and the actual OMR is available and not torn. Moreover, all results are available online," said an official.

The NTA had countered the claims of the incorrect result on social media stating, "Regarding the viral video featuring Ms Ayushi Patel, claiming discrepancies in NEET (UG) 2024 scoring and receiving of torn OMR answer sheet, NTA clarifies that no torn answer sheet was sent via an official NTA ID. OMR answer sheet is intact and scores are accurate as per official records..."