The Supreme Court on Friday stayed an order of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court awarding 196 grace marks to students who wrote this year’s National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test in Tamil. The Central Board of Secondary Examination, which conducts the annual examination for admissions to graduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses, challenged the High Court’s order.

On July 10, the High Court ordered that these students be given grace marks after 49 questions were mistranslated. It had also asked the Central Board of Secondary Examination to put up a fresh merit list.

A bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao asked both parties to find a solution. “We cannot dole out marks in this fashion,” said the court. The bench observed that if the High Court order was implemented, those who wrote the exam in Tamil would be at an advantage. NEET was conducted on May 6 and more than 24,000 students, of the 13 lakh in total, took the exam in Tamil.

The court also ordered the Directorate General of Health Services to resume the second round of counselling for medical admissions in the state, which was suspended after the High Court order, reported The News Minute.

The bench posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.