The Supreme Court (SC) of India will hear several pleas related to the medical entrance exam NEET UG 2024 controversy on Monday, seeking a direction to conduct it afresh. A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will hear 38 petitions in total.
However, the Central government and the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET-UG, told the apex court that scrapping the exam would “seriously jeopardise” lakhs of honest candidates without proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality.
"It is also submitted that at the same time, in the absence of any proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in a pan-India examination…scrapping the exam in entirety would seriously jeopardise the lakhs of honest candidates who attempted the question paper in 2024," the ministry had said.
The NTA reiterated the Centre's stand, saying the cancellation of the entire exam would be hugely “counterproductive” and significantly “harmful to larger public interest”, especially to the career prospects of the qualified candidates.
"It is submitted that if the entire examination process is cancelled without there being any tangible factors warranting such actions it would be highly detrimental to the larger public interest involving the academic career of lakhs of students who have attempted the examination fairly without any wrongdoing or even an allegation of wrongdoing," the NTA said.
The NTA and the Union education ministry have been the focus of media discussions and protests by students and political parties due to alleged widespread malpractices, including question paper leaks and impersonation, during the May 5 test.
In response, the Union education ministry and the NTA have submitted separate affidavits to the Supreme Court, opposing the petitions that call for the exam to be cancelled, a re-test to be conducted, and a court-monitored investigation into all related issues.
The ministry and the NTA have stated that there is no evidence of any significant breach of confidentiality in the exam, which was taken by more than 2.3 million candidates across 4,750 centres in 571 cities.
The government has also constituted a high-level committee of experts to suggest effective measures for conducting transparent, smooth and fair examinations by the NTA.
The controversy started when 67 students scored a perfect 720, an unprecedented event, inlcuding six from a Haryana centre. Allegations suggested grace marks led to this. The NTA revised the NEET-UG results on July 1, reducing the top rankers from 67 to 61.
(With PTI inputs)
