THE CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION AND ANR.versusT. K. RANGARAJAN AND ORS.

1166                     [2018] 13
                SUPREME COURT      S.C.R. 1166
                                REPORTS                     [2018] 13 S.C.R.


 A      THE CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION AND
                            ANR.
                                         v.
                        T. K. RANGARAJAN AND ORS.
 B                       (Civil Appeal No. 11230 of 2018)
                              NOVEMBER 22, 2018
               [S. A. BOBDE AND L. NAGESWARA RAO, JJ.]
              Education/Educational Institutions: MBBS/MD Course –
       National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-UG – Bi-lingual examination
 C
       – Questions set in English with an option of an additional regional
       language – 24,000 students took examination in tamil language –
       Certain mistranslations in the tamil version for 49 questions and
       answers – High Court awarded four grace marks for the 49
       questions, in total 196 grace marks – On appeal, held: Knowledge
 D     of the subject in English was considered a requirement and students
       were expected to resolve any ambiguity by reference to the questions
       in English Language – English version would be final because the
       entire education for MBBS/BDS courses throughout the country
       are taught in English – Simple reference to the English version would
       have clarified the imprecise word occurred in the Tamil version –
 E
       Method adopted by the High Court is manifestly arbitrary and
       unjustified and cannot be sustained as the students who gave the
       examination in Tamil have been unduly benefited only because they
       opted to give examination in Tamil – Thus, the judgment of the High
       Court is set aside.
 F
             Allowing the appeals, the Court
              HELD: 1.1 The Division Bench lost sight of the fact that
       the students appearing for the NEET-UG, 2018 Examination
       applied for admission to the course of MBBS/BDS which is
       entirely taught in English. The facility of a bilingual question paper
 G     was essentially meant for the students who were more familiar in
       Tamil than in English. Moreover, the expert body which set the
       examination seems to have contemplated the difficulty that may
       arise in translation of words from English to Tamil and had taken
       due precaution by inserting instruction that required the students
 H
                                     1166
  THE CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION v.                          1167
               T. K. RANGARAJAN

to refer to the English version in case of any ambiguity. This         A
implies that knowledge of the subject in English was considered
a requirement and students were expected to resolve any
ambiguity by reference to the questions in English Language.
[Para 12][1172-E-H]
      1.2 If one has a look at actual discrepancies in the questions   B
that were said to have created confusion, it seems that the word
with the imprecise meaning could have been easily discovered
to be faulty and a simple reference to the English version would
have clarified the same. A simple reference to the context in which
the imprecise word occur in the Tamil version would show that
the word could not have that meaning at all and there was obviously    C
some mistake which needed to be resolved by reference to the
English version. The errors were not factual and could have easily
been answered by referring to the English Version.
[Para 14, 15][1173-C-D, G]
      1.3 This Court may not be understood to be taking the view       D
that mistakes in translation, which give a disparate meaning,
should be allowed to appear in question papers. The translation
must be accurate. From the next academic year 2019-20, the
NEET Examination will be conducted by the National Testing
Agency (NTA), a society set up by the Government of India with         E
the objective of conducting examination for grant of admission
etc. The NTA is established to ensure that the methodology of
translation to conduct the examination is improved. In order to
make it foolproof, it is proposed that the translation will be done
by subject experts who are proficient in both the languages i.e.
the source language and the target language. The translation will      F
be done from the target language to the source language and
back to the target language. Thus, for example a question in
English translated in Tamil will be re-translated back to English.
This dual translation approach will remove any chance of ambiguity
in the question paper. It is proposed that in case of any ambiguity    G
between a regional language and English it will be the English
version which will be final as held by this Court in the order dated
25.01.2018. The last mentioned clause is extremely significant
to ensure that the students have some basic knowledge of English
even if they are allowed the facility to write the examination in
their regional language. Presumably, this is because the entire        H
1168            SUPREME COURT REPORTS                    [2018] 13 S.C.R.


 A     education for MBBS/BDS courses throughout the country are
       taught in English. [Paras 16, 17][1173-H; 1174-A-E]
              1.4 Assuming that there was some justification in the plea
       that students were prevented from understanding the question
       and therefore could not answer properly, it is difficult to sustain
 B     the remedy provided by the High Court. Because of a mistake in
       translation which could have been detected and avoided by the
       students, it is unjust that all the students across the board who
       took the examination in Tamil have been awarded four marks for
       all the 49 questions without any reference to the answer of those
       questions. The consequence is equally unjust and unacceptable
 C     as the students who gave the examination in Tamil have been
       unduly benefited only because they opted to give examination in
       Tamil. It is said that there are some students who might have
       otherwise failed but for the addition of marks by the High Court
       most of these students have scored higher than those who gave
 D     the examination in English and other regional languages. This is
       mainly due to the blind allocation of 196 marks to every student
       who gave the exam in Tamil. [Para 18][1174-E-H; 1175-A]
             1.5 In the impugned judgment no attempt was made to have
       the marks evaluated by an independent expert body instead the
 E     High Court resorted to blind allocation of full marks for each of
       the questions. No attempt was made to see whether the students
       have in fact attempted answers to the questions, which were
       claimed to be imperfectly translated and has proceeded to award
       the full marks for 49 questions to all candidates who had opted to
       give the examination in Tamil. The method adopted by the High
 F     Court is manifestly arbitrary and unjustified and cannot be
       sustained. [Para 19][1175-C-F]
              1.6 The list of students who opted to give the NEET-UG,
       2018 Examination in Tamil after the addition of 196 marks is
       startling. The High Court lost sight of the primary duty of Court
 G     in such matter that is to avoid arbitrary results. The judgment of
       the High Court is set aside. It is directed that from the year 2019-
       20 onwards the NEET-UG Examination would be conducted by
       the National Testing Agency and the bilingual examination would
       be conducted after the question paper is translated as set out
 H
  THE CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION v.                              1169
               T. K. RANGARAJAN

according to the instructions in the affidavit signed by the Director,     A
National Testing Agency. [Paras 20 and 22][1175-F-H;
1176-F-G]
      Kanpur University, Through Vice Chancellor and Others
      v. Samir Gupta and Ors. (1983) 4 SCC 309 : [1984] 1
      SCR 73 – distinguished.                                              B
      Guru Nanak Dev University v. Saumil Garg and others
      (2005) 13 SCC 749 – referred to.
                        Case Law Reference
(2005) 13 SCC 749                referred to              Para 19          C
[1984] 1 SCR 73                  distinguished            Para 21
      CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 11230
of 2018.
      From the Judgment and Order dated 10.07.2018 of the High Court
                                                                           D
of Judicature at Madras, Madurai Bench in W.P. (MD) No. 11916 of
2018.
                                 With
      Civil Appeal Nos. 11232, 11237, 11234, 11241, 11236, 11239, 11235,
11240, 11238, 11233, 11231, 11242 of 2018.                                 E
      Maninder Singh, ASG, Guru Krishna Kumar, Ms. V. Mohana, Sr.
Advs., Tara Chandra Sharma, Ms. Neelam Sharma, Ms. Pankhuri
Shrivastava, Parangat Pandey, Ms. Ashita Chawla, R. Nedumaran, P.
R. Kovilan, Padhbanaban, Mrs. Geetha Kovilan, V. Vasudevan, Ms.
Jubli Momalia, Kaustubh Shukla, Sandeep Dubey, Abhay Singh, N. G.          F
R. Prasad, T. Harish Kumar, Harish Pandey, S. K. Gupta, Prashant,
Ms. Priya Mishra for G. S. Makker, Rajeev Sharma, Prabhas Bajaj,
Gaurav Sharma, A. P. Mayee, A. Selvin Raja, Chirag Jain, Advs. for the
appearing parties.
      The Judgment of the Court was delivered by                           G
      S. A. BOBDE, J. 1. Leave granted.
      2. One of these appealsis preferred by the Central Board of
Secondary Education (CBSE) and the rest are filed by students who
have appeared in National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-UG (for short
‘NEET-UG’), 2018 and have taken the exam in English.This test is           H
1170             SUPREME COURT REPORTS                         [2018] 13 S.C.R.


 A     conducted according to the regulations framed under the Indian Medical
       Council Act, 1956 and the Dentists Act, 1948.
              3. The questions in the NEET-UG, 2018 paper consists of 180
       objective type questions. Bi-lingual questions were set for this examination
       in English with an option of an additional regional language. The correct
 B     answer to the questions presented in the exam is one of the four options
       offered for each question. Each correct answer carries four marks and
       each incorrect answer results in the deduction of one mark.
             4. In a writ petition filed by the students, who had taken the
       examination in the regional language of Tamil. The High Court of Madras
 C     noticed certain mistranslations in the Tamil version for the questions and
       answers in 49 questions. The High Court decided thatnearly 24,000
       students who took the examination in Tamil are entitled to four grace
       marks for each incorrectly translated question therefore, each of these
       students are entitled to a total of 196 grace marks, (i.e., 49 x 4).
 D            5. The result is obviously an unprecedented awarding of marks to
       a certain section of students who opted for the examination in Tamil,
       thus securing them higher marks than all the other type of students
       irrespective of their actual performance in the examination. The problem
       arises because of the bi-lingual system of the examination.

 E            6. Out of 13,23,672 lakh students, who appeared for the
       examination, approximately 10.5 lakh took it in English, approximately
       1.5 lakh opted for regional languages and of these about nearly 24,000
       candidates took the examination in Tamil language.
             7. The dispute in the present case concerns these 24,000 students
 F     only who have been benefited by the High Court’s order and have been
       awarded 4 marks for the 49 questions each irrespective of their actual
       answers.
              8. The genesis is as follows – Owing to nation wide increasing
       demand that the NEET examination should also have the option of a
       regional language, the CBSE introduced question papers in 13 languages,
 G
       i.e. English and 12 regional languages. In the year 2017-18, apparently,
       two sets of questions papers were set. One in English and the other in
       the regional languages. This examinationwas challenged since it was
       believed that the objective of the common entrance test cannot be fulfilled

 H
   THE CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION v.                               1171
          T. K. RANGARAJAN [S. A. BOBDE, J.]

if the questions are different. The matter came up before this Court.        A
The CBSE justified the method adopted by it as the principle of equivalent
difficulty. This Court in Writ Petition (C) No.390 of 2017 vide order
dated 25.01.2018 observed as follows: -
      “We are disposed to think that it would be appropriate for
      CBSE the questions papers set in English, Hindi or any other           B
      regional languages should be the same. It shall facilitate the
      student’s community to choose the language they intend to
      adopt to answer the questions and in that event the principle
      of uniformity shall be appositely maintained for all the
      categories of students. When there is appropriate translation,
      the identity and uniformity of the question papers will be in          C
      the realm of certainty. We have been apprised that it is difficult
      to translate certain areas in regional languages pertaining
      to medical terms. In such circumstances, it shall be within the
      domain of the experts to use the medical terms as they are.”
      This would help the students to choose the language they adopt         D
for answering the questions and there would be uniformity for all
categories of students, i.e., those opting to answer in English and those
opting to answer in a regional language. In turn, the CBSE decided and
stated before this Court that the pattern of the NEET-UG, 2018
examination as regards to language would be as follows:-                     E
      “(c) Language of the Question Papers.
      i. Candidates can opt for question Papers in either of the
      following languages:
      ENGLISH HINDI ASSAMESE BENGALI GUJARATI KANADA                         F
      MARATHIORIYA TAMIL TELUGU URDU
      ii. Option of medium of Question Paper will be exercised while
      filing in the application form. The option once exercised by
      candidates cannot be changed later.
      iii Candidates opting for English would be provided Test               G
      Booklet in English only.
      iv Candidates opting for Hindi would be provided Bilingual
      Test Booklet i.e. in Hindi and in English.

                                                                             H
1172             SUPREME COURT REPORTS                         [2018] 13 S.C.R.


 A           v. Candidates opting for vernacular languages would be
             provided Bilingual Test Booklet i.e. in selected language and
             in English.
             vi. In case of any ambiguity in translation of any of the
             questions, its English version shall be treated as final.”
 B            9. Instruction (vi) above, assumes significance in this case. This
       instruction was also incorporated in the hall ticket which allowed admission
       to the examination hall to ensure that it is not missed.
               10. The main grievance of the Petitioners before the High Court
       seems to have been that the Tamil translation of the English questions
 C     misled them. As the translation did not have the same meaning as the
       English questions,since some of the words used in Tamil were not
       accurately translated from English.This led to incorrect answers. This
       being so, the Petitioners prayed for the grant of ’Grace Marks’ to all the
       students who gave the NEET-UG, 2018 Examination in the Tamil medium
 D     for all 49 questions in which such errors occurred.
             11. The High Court held that the 49 question in Tamil were
       ambiguous especially in respect of the students who had throughout
       studied in Tamil medium and had scant knowledge of English. The High
       Court further noted that the average knowledge of English even for one
 E     who has studied in an English Medium school is just about adequate.
              12. The Division Bench seems to have lost sight of the fact that
       the students appearing for the NEET-UG, 2018 Examination applied for
       admission to the course of MBBS/BDS which is entirely taught in English.
       The facility of a bilingual question paper was essentially meant for the
 F     students who were more familiar in Tamil than in English. Moreover,
       the expert body which set the examination seems to have contemplated
       the difficulty that may arise in translation of words from English to Tamil
       and had taken due precaution by inserting instruction(vi) (supra)that
       required the students to refer to the English version in case of any
       ambiguity.
 G
              This implies that knowledge of the subject in English was
       considered a requirement and students were expected to resolve any
       ambiguity by reference to the questions in English Language. We must
       make note that there is no grievance whatsoever that there was any
       difficulty about the questions in English language.
 H
   THE CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION v.                                1173
          T. K. RANGARAJAN [S. A. BOBDE, J.]

      13. Some of the examples of the discrepancies in translation which      A
occurred in the Tamil version, are as follows: -
In the English version the students were asked to select the incorrect
option for the following sets of examples for divergent evolution:-
      (1) Forelimbs of man, bat and cheetah
                                                                              B
      (2) Heart of bat, man and cheetah
      (3) Eye of octopus, bat and man
      (4) Brain of bat, man and cheetah
        14. If one has a look at actual discrepanciesin the questions that
                                                                              C
were said to have created confusion, it seems that the word with the
imprecise meaning could have been easily discovered to be faulty and a
simple reference to the English version would have clarified the same.
A simple reference to the context in which the imprecise word occur in
the Tamil version would show that the word could not have that meaning
at all and there was obviously some mistake which needed to be resolved       D
by reference to the English version.
       15. According to the Respondent No. 1in the Tamil version the
word ‘Cheetah’ is translated as ‘Sita’. Now it would be obvious to
apply the common sense that Sita, which is a name of Goddess and used
for human beings, cannot occur in the example for divergent evolution         E
thatdeals with man, bat and cheetah etc. This mistake in
‘Cheetah’appearing as ‘Sita’ is said to have occurred because of
mispronunciation of the word ‘Chiruthaiyin’ as ‘Seethavin’. Similarly,
the word ‘Octopus’ has been translated as ‘Aathadapuz’ which seems
to be the result of mispronunciation. Likewise, it was pointed out that in
                                                                              F
respect of translating ‘Ragam’ which means variety. In Tamil translation
was ‘Nagam’ which means ‘Nail’. We do agree that a plain
reading,sounds absurd but it would be obvious to anyone that the word
‘Nail’would make no sense where the question deals with a new variety
of rice which was patented by a foreign company simply because there
cannot be a nail of rice.The errors were not factual and could have           G
easily been answered by referring to the English Version.
       16. We may not be understood to be taking the view that mistakes
in translation, which give a disparate meaning, should be allowed to appear
in question papers. The translation must be accurate. We are informed
                                                                              H
1174             SUPREME COURT REPORTS                          [2018] 13 S.C.R.


 A     that from the next academic year 2019-20, the NEET Examination will
       be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), a society set up
       by the Government of India with the objective of conducting examination
       for grant of admission etc. The NTAis established to ensure that the
       methodology of translation to conduct the examinationis improved. In
       order to make it foolproof, it is proposed that the translation will be done
 B
       by subject experts who are proficient in both the languages i.e.the source
       language and the target language.
              17. The translation will be done from the target language to the
       source language and back to the target language. Thus, for example a
       question in English translated in Tamil will be re-translated back to English.
 C     This dual translation approach will remove any chance of ambiguity in
       the question paper. In spite of this safeguard, it is proposed that in case
       of any ambiguity between a regional language and English it will the
       English version which will be final as held by this Court in the order
       dated 25.01.2018 referred above.
 D           We find this last mentioned clause is extremely significant to
       ensure that the students have some basic knowledge of English even if
       they are allowed the facility to write the examination in their regional
       language. Presumably, this is because the entire education for MBBS/
       BDS courses throughout the country are taught in English.
 E            18. Assuming that there was some justification in the plea that
       students were prevented from understanding the question and therefore
       could not answer properly, we find it difficult to sustain the remedy
       provided by the High Court. The number of students that appeared in
       the NEET-UG, 2018was 13,23,672, approximately 10.5 lakh took it in
 F     English, approximately 1.5 lakh opted for regional languages and of these
       nearly 24,000 candidates took the examination in Tamil language. Because
       of a mistake in translation which could have been detected and avoided
       by the students, we find it unjust that all the students across the board
       who took the examination in Tamil have been awarded four marks for
       all the 49 questions without any reference to the answer of those
 G     questions. The consequence is equally unjust and unacceptable as the
       students who gave the examination in Tamil have been unduly benefited
       only because they opted to give examination in Tamil. It is said that
       there are some students who might have otherwise failed but for the

 H
      THE CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION v.                             1175
             T. K. RANGARAJAN [S. A. BOBDE, J.]

addition of marks by the High Court most of these students have scored        A
higher than those who gave the examination in English and other regional
languages. This is mainly due to the blind allocation of 196 marks to
every student who gave the exam in Tamil.
       19. In Guru Nanak Dev University v.Saumil Gargand others 1,
in somewhat similar circumstances where after the CBSE opined that            B
10 out of the 21 key answers were incorrect, this Court called for a
report from the CBSE and the Delhi University as regards correctness
of those 10 answers and thereupon in order to preserve merit the Court
directed the University to re-evaluate the answers to the aforesaid 8
questions with reference to key answers.
                                                                              C
      This course adopted by this Court was to prevent arbitrariness in
awarding marks. We see no attempt in the impugned judgement to have
the marks evaluated by an independent expert body instead the High
Court resorted to blind allocation of full marks for each of the questions.
       In fact, in the Guru Nanak Dev University case (supra) wherein         D
this Court found that in respect of vague questions which were incapable
of correct answers, the University could not have given credit for those
questions to all the students, irrespective if the said questions have been
attempted or not.
       Even so by the impugned judgment, the High Court has made no           E
attempt to see whether the students have in fact attempted answers to
the questions, which were claimed to be imperfectly translated and has
proceeded to award the full marks for 49 questions to all candidates
who had opted to give the examination in Tamil. The method adopted by
the High Court is manifestly arbitrary and unjustified and cannot be
sustained.                                                                    F
        20. The list of students who opted to give the NEET-UG, 2018
Examination in Tamilafter the addition of 196 marks is startling. For
instance, a student who got 260 marks has been awarded a total of 456
marks. A student with 137 marks becomes entitled to 333 marks and
the student who got 92 marks becomes entitled to 288 marks. Even              G
students who have 21 marks been entitled to 217 marks. It is clear that
the High Court lost sight of the primary duty of Court in such matter that
is to avoid arbitrary results.
1
    (2005) 13 SCC 749
                                                                              H
1176                SUPREME COURT REPORTS                     [2018] 13 S.C.R.


 A           21. The learned counsel for the Respondent No. 1 placed reliance
       on the judgment of this Court in Kanpur University, Through Vice
       Chancellor and Others v. Samir Gupta and Ors.2. According to the
       learned counsel this Court in the above case granted marks to all the
       students appearing in the examination after finding an error in the answer
       key. The learned counsel submits that the same approach should be
 B
       adopted in the present case. That case was decided in entirely different
       circumstances. In the first place, the examination then was not bi-lingual.
       Moreover, the question before this Court was called upon to decide
       whether a student who answeredthe question correctly be failed for an
       answer which though correct, doesn’t accord with the key answer
 C     supplied by the University.
             No such situation has arisen in the case before us. This is not a
       case wherein the students claimed that they have been failed though
       they gave the correct answer; merely because the answer key was
       wrong. The case is that the student couldn’t answer because the question
 D     was wrongly translated from English; there was no dispute about the
       correctness of question in English. In any case, in the Kanpur case
       (supra)the relief granted to the students was the grant of three marks
       for each of the questions answered correctly by them and the addition
       of one mark since one mark was wrongly deducted for the questions
       wrongly answered. The award of marks by the Court didn’t result in
 E     granting any undue advantage to one section of students over the other
       students.
              22. For these reasons, we set aside the impugned judgment of the
       High Court of Madras dated 10.07.2018. We direct that from theyear
       2019-20 onwards the NEET-UG Examination will be conducted by the
 F     National Testing Agency and the bilingual examination will be conducted
       after the question paper is translated as set out according to the
       instructions in the affidavit dated 22.10.2018signed by Dr. Vikas Gupta,
       Director, National Testing Agency as mentioned above.
                 23. Accordingly, the appeals are allowed.
 G

       Nidhi Jain                                                 Appeals allowed.



       2
 H         (1983) 4 SCC 309