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The court said that if the sanctity of NEET-UG 2024 is lost and the leak of its question paper is publicised through social media, then a re-examination will have to be ordered. (File photo)
In the affidavit, the government said that data analysis showed that no local candidate gained any advantage that led to abnormal marks.
Two days after the Supreme Court observed that the sanctity of NEET-UG 2024 has been “breached”, the Central government on Wednesday filed an affidavit before the apex court in the paper leak case, stating that it is not in favour of re-exam, citing an analysis by IIT Madras which said there was no “large-scale malpractice” in the exam.
The government said it was ensuring that no benefit was given to any candidate found guilty of malpractice, but 23 lakh students should not be burdened with having to take the exam again on the basis of “unsubstantiated apprehensions”.
The government said a detailed technical evaluation was carried out by IIT Madras on the data related to the NEET-UG 2024 exam and the analysis shows “no indication of large-scale manipulation”. The government also said that the data analysis shows that no local cluster of candidates got advantage leading to abnormal scores.
The Central Government has constituted a committee of experts to make recommendations for conducting transparent and smooth examination.
Sanctity of NEET-UG 2024 violated: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on Monday said the sanctity of NEET-UG 2024 has been “violated” and a re-examination may be ordered if the entire process is affected. The court has sought detailed information from the National Examination Agency and the CBI about the time and manner of leakage of the question paper besides the number of violators to know the extent of its impact.
“We should not indulge in self-denial. Self-denial will only aggravate the problem,” a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said in a stern voice to the Centre and the NTA (which conducts the prestigious exam).
“One thing which is very clear is that there has been a leak. The sanctity of the exam has been violated, there is no doubt about that. The question is how widespread the leak is,” said the bench, which also comprised Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra.
While asking several deep questions, the bench said that if the breach of propriety affects the entire process then a retrial will have to be ordered.
The court said that if the sanctity of NEET-UG 2024 has been “lost” and if the leak of its question paper has been propagated through social media, then a re-examination will have to be ordered.
