PMET 2016: 14 questions were wrong, not 110, Baba Farid varsity tell high court

Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, on Thursday, told the Punjab and Haryana high court that, due to various discrepancies, as many as 14 questions were declared invalid in the Pre-Medical Entrance Test (PMET) conducted by the university for admission to MBBS/BDS courses in the state’s private and government colleges.

University registrar Dr SP Singh told the court that the petitioners’ claims that as many as 110 questions were wrong had been ‘falsified’ by experts’ reports, which examined the question papers.

Fourteen questions were declared invalid for which equal weightage was given to all the candidates according to the recommendations of subject experts. In the case of Zoology Set-I, a necessary change in the answer key had been made as recommended and marks given accordingly, the university said.

The university has engaged senior advocate Anupam Gupta to argue before the court on its behalf. Gupta was counsel of university in 2015 as well when the exam had courted similar controversy but was later upheld by the high court after ordering minor changes.

The court was told that it opted for the percentile system of score normalisation as it was used by most prestigious examinations, including the one conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. The Central Board of Secondary Education has also used the same method in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) conducted for admission to MBBS and BDS courses for various medical colleges in the country. To the argument that the exam should not have been held in two shifts, the university said that the NEET was also conducted in two shifts.

The percentile system of score normalisation is done when paper is conducted in shifts, and to account for the difficulty level papers in different shifts it is an established academic practice, the university argued. The hearing on the petition would resume on August 9. The petition has been filed by Ravneet Kaur and others and they have sought quashing of the PMET-2016 result stating that it was declared on the basis of the percentile system in contravention to the provisions of the exam. The petitioners have also sought to re-conduct of the June 10 examination.