The Supreme Court began hearing multiple petitions today regarding the re-conduct of NEET UG. The next hearing is scheduled for July 11, 2024.
On Monday, the Supreme Court acknowledged that the paper leak in the NEET UG 2024 was an “admitted fact” and suggested a possible re-examination for those involved. The court directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to fully disclose and clarify three key aspects:
- When the question paper leak first occurred.
- How the leaked papers were disseminated.
- The time elapsed between the leak and the actual exam conducted at 2 pm on May 5.
During the hearing, the court appointed a nodal counsel and directed the Centre to provide a detailed schedule of dates. It also requested a status report from the CBI, outlining the investigation progress based on the material discovered.
The court further questioned whether data analytics could be utilized by the Cyber Forensics unit or an expert agency to identify suspect cases. The Solicitor General proposed that the next hearing be held on Thursday, July 11. The petitions were heard by a bench consisting of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra.
This hearing comes after a plea was filed seeking a fresh exam, initially held on May 5, due to alleged question paper leaks and other malpractices. On June 20, the court sought responses from the Centre and the NTA on several petitions, including those calling for the NEET-UG to be scrapped and a court-monitored investigation.
The Union Government and the NTA argued that scrapping NEET UG 2024 would disadvantage many honest candidates without proof of a large-scale breach. An affidavit from the Ministry of Education stated that it would not be rational to cancel the entire exam as the results were declared without evidence of widespread confidentiality breaches.
The controversy began on June 4 following the announcement of results, which saw 67 candidates achieving perfect scores of 720 – an unprecedented event. Some of these candidates were from the same examination center, raising suspicions. The NTA asserted that the performance of students at the questioned centers was neither abnormally high nor significantly different from the national average, emphasizing that the issue did not involve a systemic failure.
The subsequent events shook the country’s education sector. The Bihar Police made multiple arrests, including NEET aspirants, for the paper leak. The UGC NET 2024, another crucial exam conducted by the NTA, was leaked on the darknet. More key entrance exams, such as NEET PG and joint CSIR UGC NET 2024, were postponed, disappointing many candidates.
The NTA’s failure to conduct exams systematically led to student protests and political backlash against the Modi-led central government. Amid the outrage, the Centre replaced the NTA’s director general on June 22, appointing Pradeep Singh Kharola as the new chief. A high-level panel, chaired by ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan, was formed on June 25 to recommend reforms in the examination process, data security protocols, and the NTA’s structure and functioning within two months.
The government also involved the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the alleged malpractices. Several arrests and detentions have been made by the CBI in connection with the case.
Notably, the NTA conducted a re-examination for 1,563 candidates on June 23, who were given grace marks due to time loss during the original NEET UG exam on May 5. However, only 813 candidates took the re-examination, while the rest chose to retain their scores without the grace marks.
In an earlier hearing on June 18, the Supreme Court emphasized the importance of maintaining the integrity of the examination process, underscoring the need to address even 0.01% negligence by the NTA in conducting NEET-UG 2024.
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