In a huge relief to a number of students who fail to qualify to enter into prestigious institutions like IITs due to negative marking, Madras High Court ruled against negative marking in competitive examinations saying they are bad in law.
Disposing of a writ petition filed six years back by an IIT JEE aspirant who failed to clear the Mains due to negative marking, Justice R Mahadevan held that the practice should be done away with immediately.
The petitioner had appeared for JEE (Main) exam, a national level common entrance test, and had fallen short of the cut-off score by three marks due to negative marking.
Accepting the petitioner's argument that negative marking is not prevailing anywhere else in the world, the Judge said it acts only as "a bolt in the brain development" of students and prevents them from making intelligent guesses.
Further, the Judge rejected the CBSE counsel's submission that, in Indian context the practice is necessary and gave the ruling not to give negative marks for wrong answers. The Judge also directed the CBSE to communicate the order to the National testing Agency which conducts the JEE (Main) exam. (AIR NEWS)