The Allahabad High Court on Thursday directed the Central Board of Secondary Education to award five marks to a petitioner, after it was discovered that the answer key provided by the CBSE to a question in a test booklet of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test did not provide the right answer, the Hindustan Times reported.

Petitioner Saumitra Gigodia claimed that he had opted for question number 172 in the test booklet ‘Y’ of Neet 2017. However, when the answer key was released, the wrong option was selected as the answer for the question by the CBSE experts. He later pleaded that he be given four marks for the right answer and one mark be deducted from his total marks for giving a wrong answer.

The bench comprising Justice Tarun Agarwala and Justice Ashok Kumar, after hearing arguments of the parties concerned, held Gigodia’s claim was genuine and awarded him a total of five marks - four marks for the question and one for minus marking. The bench also instructed the CBSE to revise the marks awarded to all other candidates and also their rank accordingly.

Around 11 lakh medical aspirants across India had appeared for the Neet, which was conducted by the CBSE on May 7.