The Supreme Court said on Thursday that any decision to re-conduct NEET-UG 2024 must be based on a solid foundation, demonstrating that the integrity of the entire examination has been compromised.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said, “It has social ramifications."
The bench is hearing more than 40 pleas, including those filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET-UG examinations, seeking to transfer cases pending against it in various high courts regarding the alleged irregularities in the exam to the Supreme Court to avoid multiplicity of litigations.
1) “We will open the case today. Lakhs of young students are waiting for this; let us hear and decide,” the top court adjourned the cases listed ahead of the NEET-UG pleas.
2) The bench asked the petitioners requesting the cancellation, re-test, and a court-supervised investigation into the alleged irregularities in the May 5 exam to demonstrate that the paper leak was widespread and impacted the entire examination, justifying its cancellation.
3) "Re-examination has to be on concrete footing that the sanctity of the entire test was affected," the CJI said as quoted by PTI.
4) “The CBI probe is on. If what the CBI has told us is revealed, it will affect the investigation and people will become wise,” the bench said during the hearing.
5) CJI Chandrachud told the petitioners that ‘you have to show us that the leak was so systemic and affected the entire examination so as to warrant the cancellation of the entire exam.’
6) Senior advocate Narender Hooda, who represents the lead petitioner, read the executive summary of the IIT Madras report. “The analysis by IIT Madras showed that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores," the report read.
7) “One of the Directors of IIT Madras is a member of the governing body of the NTA. They have run the data analytics, taking the entire number. If data analytics is to be run for 23 lakhs, at what stage, if 10,000 or 20,000 people have sneaked into it, can you not detect any abnormality? The correct procedure was to apply this process to 1 lakh eight thousand people,” Hooda added.
8) The top court said, “CBI probe is on. If what agency has told us is revealed, it will affect investigation, people will become wise.”
9) NTA counsel says that the 44 were given marks for the questions having one extra answer as per NCERT booklet, LiveLaw reported.
10) More than 23.33 lakh students had taken the test on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 overseas. The 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.
(With inputs from agencies)
