NEET-UG: A strange situation arose in the Supreme Court on a question of physics, a committee of experts had to be formed – Controversy over NEET-UG physics related question, DU professor says only one answer was correct

Hearing on NEET-UG

NEET-UG Hearing: A Delhi University (DU) professor on Monday said that a controversial physics question asked in the NEET-UG 2024 exam had only one correct answer, not two, leading the Supreme Court to direct IIT-Delhi to constitute a committee of experts to resolve the impasse. During the day-long hearing of several petitions, including one seeking re-conduct of the NEET-UG exam, which has been mired in controversy due to question paper leak and other irregularities, the court faced a bizarre situation over a physics question.

It was argued that the question had two correct answers

It was argued that the question had two correct answers and candidates who gave one of the two correct answers were awarded four marks. Some lawyers also said that there were three groups of candidates, one of which got minus five marks for a correct answer, another group got four marks for another correct answer, and the third group consisted of those who skipped the question either due to lack of knowledge or fear of getting negative marks. A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud was told that this had a significant impact on the merit list of successful candidates.

A team of experts was formed

The controversy led the court to ask the IIT-Delhi director to constitute a team of three subject experts. Delhi University associate professor and IIT, Madras alumnus Naveen Gaur was asked to respond to the controversial question. The question reads: “Given below are two statements: Statement 1: Atoms are electrically neutral as they have equal number of positive and negative charges. Statement 2: Atoms of each element are stable and emit their own characteristic spectrum.

In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

(1) Statement 1 is false but Statement 2 is correct.

(2) Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 are correct.

(3) Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 are wrong.

(4) Statement 1 is correct but Statement 2 is wrong.

Professor Gaur, who teaches at Dyal Singh College, said option four is the only correct answer. This is clearly contrary to the arguments presented in the apex court that there were two correct answers. The apex court will on Tuesday examine the report of three experts from IIT-Delhi on the question. (PTI-language input)