SC commences hearing on pleas related to row over NEET-UG

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday commenced hearing on a batch of petitions related to the controversy-ridden medical entrance exam, NEET-UG 2024.

The top court was told by a counsel for NEET-UG aspirants that the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the prestigious exam, has admitted to paper leak and the dissemination of the ‘leaked question paper’ through WhatsApp.

At the outset, the bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwla and Manoj Misra asked the counsel for the parties as to what emerged from the declaration of the centre-wise and city-wise results of the exam.

The hearing is underway.

An analysis of results released by NTA on Saturday indicated that the candidates who allegedly benefitted from the paper leak and other irregularities did not do well. Some centres, however, showed high concentration of well-performing students, it revealed.

The voluminous data of over 23 lakh candidates from 4,750 centres was not released in a cumulative format but in a drop-down menu for each centre. The data was released on the direction of the Supreme Court which is hearing several petitions over the alleged irregularities as lakhs of aspirants await a final verdict on the fate of the exam.

The performance of the candidates from the centres under the scanner -- such as Oasis School, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, Hardayal Public School, Jhajjar, Haryana, Jay Jalaram International School in Godhra, Gujarat -- were comparatively much below par.

On July 18, the bench directed the NTA to declare by 12 noon of July 20 the centre and city-wise results of the controversy-ridden exam while masking the identities of the aspirants.

The bench had said it wanted to ascertain whether candidates appearing at allegedly tainted centres scored more marks than those elsewhere.

The bench is hearing more than 40 pleas, including those filed by NTA, seeking transfer of cases pending against it in various high courts regarding the alleged irregularities in the exam to the Supreme Court to avoid multiplicity of litigations.

More than 23.33 lakh students had taken the test on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 overseas.

In their affidavits filed earlier in the apex court, the Centre and the NTA had said that scrapping the exam would be "counterproductive" and "seriously jeopardise" lakhs of honest candidates in the absence of any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.