NEET UG Row: Will re-exam be held for all? Here's what Supreme Court said before posting the matter for Thursday

The Supreme Court on Monday said that the paper leak in the conduct of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) UG 2024 was an ‘admitted fact’, and hinted at a re-examination for ‘wrongdoers’. The top court that began hearing a series of petitions today concerning the re-conduct of the NEET UG also directed the NTA to fully disclose and provide clarity in three aspects:

1. When the leak of question papers had first taken place
2. The manner in which question papers leaked were disseminated.
3. Time duration between occurrence of leak and actual conduct of exam which took place at 2 pm on May 5

In its hearing, the court announced the appointment of a nodal counsel akin to CB matters as well as directed Centre to distribute a detailed schedule of dates. The apex court sought for a status report be filed by the CBI investigating officer indicating status of investigation from the material that has come to light during investigation.

It further asked the Centre and NTA is whether it was feasible to use data analytics either within Cyber Forensics unit or any expert agency to b to identify suspect cases

Pledging to request records from CBI, the Solicitor General proposed the next hearing be scheduled for Thursday, that is on July 11. Supreme Court hearing on NEET UG live updates

The petitions were heard by a bench consisting of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, along with Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

Notably, the hearing comes days after a plea was filed in the top court seeking a fresh exam, originally held on May 5, on the grounds of alleged question paper leak and other malpractices. The court on June 20 sought responses from the Centre and the NTA on the petition on a slew of petitions, including those seeking the scrapping of the NEET-UG and a court-monitored probe.

Also read: NEET MDS Counselling 2024: Choice filling ends today, Round 1 seat allotment result on July 10

Consequently, the Union Government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) told the apex court that scrapping NEET UG 2024 would jeopardize lakhs of honest candidates in the absence of any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality. The affidavit filed through the Ministry of Education stated that it would not be rational to scrap the entire examination. The results were already declared without proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in a pan-India examination.

It was on June 4 when the uproar began following the declaration of results wherein as many as 67 candidates achieved perfect scores 720 – an uncommon phenomenon in this history of the exam.

What was even more surprising was that a few among the 67 candidates belonged to the same examination center raising suspicions. The NTA in its recent response to the Supreme Court asserted that the “performance of students at the questioned centers is neither abnormally high nor significantly different from the national average.” It also highlighted that the present case does not involve a systematic failure across the entire examination process.

Also read: NEET UG counselling 2024 expected to begin by end of July, hint official sources; no date notified so far

Meanwhile, the events that followed shook the education sector of the country from its core – from the multiple arrests of individuals (including NEET aspirants) by the Bihar Police for the paper leak to the leakage of the UGC NET 2024 – another crucial examination held by the NTA, on the darknet, things only went downhill. More key entrance exams such as the NEET PG and joint CSIR UGC NET 2024 were postponed, much to the disappointment of candidates.

The alleged failure of the NTA to hold the examinations in a systematic manner was not only limited to protests by students - it transcended into a political fireball with opposition parties coming down heavily on the Prime Minister Modi-led central government.

Amid the outrage, the Centre replaced the director general of NTA on June 22 and appointed Pradeep Singh Kharola as the agency’s new chief.

Furthermore, a high-level panel was also formed by the Centre on June 25, chaired by ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan. The Panel is tasked to give its recommendations to the education ministry within the next 2 months on the reform in the mechanism of the examination process, improvement in data security protocols, and structure and functioning of the NTA.

Not just this, the government also brought in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the alleged malpractices and probe the entire gamut of alleged irregularities, including conspiracy, cheating, impersonation, and breach of trust. Several arrests and detentions have been made so far by the CBI in connection with the case.

Worth mentioning here, the NTA had conducted a re-examination for 1,563 candidates on June 23, who were given grace marks due to loss of time during the originally scheduled NEET UG exam on May 5. The exam was held after the Centre had told the Supreme Court on June 13 of its proposal to conduct the re-exam and withdraw the scorecards issued to the candidates who were given grace marks.

Strangely, out of the 1,563 candidates, only 813 candidates took the re-examination, while the rest opted to retain their scores without the grace marks.

It may be mentioned here that the Supreme Court in an earlier hearing on June 18 had emphasized the need for maintaining the integrity of the examination process. The apex court had underscored the importance of thoroughly dealing with even 0.01% negligence on the part of NTA in conducting the NEET-UG 2024.