Petition in Supreme Court seeks review of its order against fresh NEET-UG 2024 exam
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 2
The review petitioners have urged the top court to reconsider its decision. “The new-found material evidence ostensibly establishes a ‘Systemic breach/malpractice’ prevalent across states, hence challenging the grounds on which the order dated 02.08.2024, was primarily based, such that it is not possible to separate the beneficiaries of leak/malpractice from the honest students. It calls for judicial application of mind on a whole new set of evidence which cannot go unnoticed in this matter of immense public interest,” they submitted.
Review petitions are generally heard “in chamber”—and not in an open court—by a procedure called “hearing by circulation” where advocates representing the parties are not allowed to argue. But in exceptional cases, the top court allows open court hearing, if convinced about its need.
Ending weeks of uncertainty over admission to undergraduate medical courses across India, the Supreme Court had on July 23 refused to cancel NEET-UG 2024 examination and order a retest, saying that there was absence of material on the record to suggest a systemic breach of sanctity of the examination held on May 5.
“At the present stage, there is absence of material on record to lead to a conclusion that the result of the exam is vitiated or that a systemic breach of the sanctity of the exam has taken place,” a three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud had said in its order.
In its order released on its website on August 2, the Bench had indicted the National Testing Agency (NTA) for “serious lapses” in conducting the NEET (UG)-2024 that hit national headlines following a paper leak and other irregularities.
“In one of the centres, the rear door of the strongroom was opened and unauthorised persons were permitted to access the question papers. This indicates that there is a serious lapse in security and stringent and effective security measures must be implemented by the NTA,” the Bench had said, adding that “multiple occurrences in the conduct of the exam prompt the court to make these observations”.
The top court had expanded the remit of the Centre-appointed panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan constituted to review the functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which holds the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG), and recommend examination reforms.
The court had asked the committee to submit its report by September 30 on measures to rectify deficiencies in the examination system.
It had also directed the NTA to ensure that all concerns highlighted by the court in its judgment are addressed and requested the seven-member committee to keep these issues in mind while making its recommendations.
Around 24 lakh students appeared for NEET-UG 2024 Examination conducted on May 5 by the NTA across 4,750 centres in 511 cities and 14 centres abroad for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in more than 700 government and private institutions to fill 1.08 lakh seats.