NEET UG 2024: The Supreme Court began hearing a batch of petitions alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the NEET-UG 2024 exam, held on May 5 this year. A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra are hearing the case today. On July 15, the apex court adjourned the hearing for Thursday to enable the petitioners to file their responses to the affidavits filed by the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA).
Next Hearing On July 22: SC
Supreme Court posts for July 22 for hearing pleas alleging paper leak and malpractice in NEET-UG 2024 exams.
SC Directs NTA To Upload Full NEET Results On Website
Supreme Court directs the National Testing Agency to publish the marks of ALL students who appeared for NEET-UG 2024 online along with the Centre number for each. Identity of the students to be masked to protect the privacy of the students. Results to be published online by Saturday 12 noon.
NEET UG 2024 SC Hearing: Proceedings Resume Post Lunch Break
The Bench has reconvened, and the Supreme Court continues its session on the NEET matter, addressing the issues discussed before the lunch break.
Students Request For Retest
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Court that 131 students outside the 108,000 seat limit are requesting a retest, while 254 within the limit oppose it. Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde noted that some students within the 108,000 are also seeking government seats.
SC Grills NTA
The Supreme Court seeks to know the top hundred ranks in the NEET-UG 2024 exam and the cities from which they come.
Centre Allotment
When questioned about how many students changed their centres, the NTA stated that, in the name of corrections, students have changed centres, and 15,000 students utilized the window for corrections. The NTA informed the Supreme Court that students can change only the city, and no candidate can choose the centre. The centre is allotted by the system. The centre's allotment is done only two days before the exam, so nobody knows which centre will be allotted.
It was noted in the order that some of the parties in the case haven't received the affidavits filed by the Centre and NTA and they need to prepare their responses before arguments.
On July 11, the Central government filed an affidavit in the case denying any mass malpractice in the NEET-UG 2024 exam.
The Supreme Court has sought detailed information from the National Testing Agency (NTA) regarding the number of candidates who changed their examination cities. This inquiry follows concerns about potential irregularities in the centre allotment process.
Central Government's Affidavit
In the affidavit, the Centre said the data analytics done by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras shows that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores. It also said that counselling will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July. "For any candidate, if it is found that he/she has been the beneficiary of any malpractice, the candidature of such person would be cancelled at any stage during the counselling process or even afterwards," the affidavit stated.
The NTA in its affidavit had also said that the video showing a photo of the NEET-UG exam paper leaked on Telegram on May 4 was fake. "The timestamp was manipulated to create a false impression of an early leak," it had added.
It said that NTA has carried out an analysis of distribution of marks of candidates in NEET-UG 2024 at the National, State and City levels and also Centre level. "This analysis indicates that the distribution of marks is quite normal and there seems to be no extraneous factor, which would influence the distribution of marks," it had submitted.
Aspirants Approach SC
Aspirants had approached the top court and raised the issue of leakage of question paper, awarding compensatory marks and anomaly in question of NEET-UG.
All About NEET-UG Exam
NEET-UG examination, conducted by NTA, is the pathway for admissions into MBBS, BDS and AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country. The NEET-UG, 2024 was held across 4,750 centres on May 5 and around 24 lakh candidates appeared for the exam.
