LexTHE CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION AND ANR. versus T. K. RANGARAJAN AND ORS.
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A B C D E F G H 1166 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2018] 13 S.C.R. THE CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION AND ANR. v. T. K. RANGARAJAN AND ORS. (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 – 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 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 – 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. 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 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 [2018] 13 S.C.R. 1166 1166 A B C D E F G H 1167 to refer to the English version in case of any ambiguity. 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. [Para 12][1172-E-H] 1.2 If one has a look at actual discrepancies in the questions 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 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 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 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 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 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 THE CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION v. T. K. RANGARAJAN A B C D E F G H 1168 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2018] 13
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