The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to declare the centre and city-wise results of NEET-UG 2024 by 12 noon on July 20, with the identity of the candidates kept confidential.
Attempting to address the allegations of irregularities in the conduct of the exam, a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said any order for holding it afresh must be based on a firm finding that the sanctity of the entire process has been affected.
The apex court will resume hearing on July 22 on the petitions seeking cancellation of the prestigious exam held on May 5, re-examination and a court-monitored probe into allegations of large-scale malpractices.
During the day-long hearing, the bench asked the lawyers of the candidates to prove their claim about widespread irregularities in the conduct of the examination, including leakage of question paper, which led to the cancellation and re-examination.
The court said that prima facie it appears that the incident of question paper leak was limited to Patna and Hazaribagh only and no such incident took place in Godhra, Gujarat.
In Patna and Hazaribagh, question papers were allegedly leaked, while in Godhra, it was claimed that a person conducting the exam took money to fill the OMR sheets of some candidates.
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Questioning the claims of question paper leak on social media platform ‘Telegram’, the bench said, “You have to keep in mind that the idea behind anybody doing this was not to create a national spectacle. People did this for money. So, it was not to defame the exam and somebody was doing this to make money, which is clear. Large scale leak requires contacts even at that level so you can connect with all such key contacts in various cities.”
The bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, commenced crucial hearing on petitions related to the controversial medical entrance exam, saying it has “social consequences”.
“We will open the matter today. Lakhs of young students are waiting for it, let us hear and decide,” the apex court said while adjourning the matters listed before the NEET-UG petitions.
The bench asked the petitioners to prove that the paper leak was “planned” and that it affected the entire examination, leading to the cancellation of the exam.
The Chief Justice said, “Re-examination has to be done on the solid ground that the sanctity of the entire examination has been affected.”
On the issue of ongoing investigation, the bench said, “The CBI investigation is ongoing. If what the CBI has told us comes out, it will affect the investigation and people will become wise.”
The bench is hearing over 40 petitions, including those filed by the NTA, which conducts NEET-UG, seeking transfer of cases pending against it in various high courts over alleged irregularities to the Supreme Court to avoid multiple litigation.
On July 11, the apex court had adjourned the hearing of a batch of petitions, including those seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024, re-exam and probe into alleged malpractices, till July 18 as responses from the Centre and the NTA are yet to be received by some of the parties.
On May 5, more than 23.33 lakh students took the exam at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 foreign centres.
In their affidavits filed earlier in the Supreme Court, the Centre and the NTA had said that cancellation of the exam would be “repugnant” and “seriously endanger” lakhs of honest candidates in the absence of any evidence of large-scale privacy violation.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is conducted by the NTA for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
