CJI-led Bench to hear petitions seeking scrapping of NEET today

New Delhi, July 17

The Supreme Court will on Thursday hear petitions seeking scrapping of the NEET-UG 2024 examination for alleged paper leak and other malpractices.

The matter will be taken up by a three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud, which had on July 11 deferred the hearing on the ground that the Union of India and the National Testing Agency (NTA) had filed their replies but some of the advocates had not got e-copies of the replies. The Bench had posted the matter for hearing on July 18 to enable the parties to peruse the replies.

The top court will also take up petitions filed by the NTA seeking the transfer of cases pending in high courts on the alleged paper leak to the SC.

1 Lakh seats to be filled

Around 24 lakh students took NEET-UG exam on May 5. Nearly 1 lakh seats are to be filled in over 700 govt & pvt institutions

Highlighting several ‘red flags’ in the examination, the top court had earlier made it clear that it would order a retest, if it’s found the irregularities were widespread. It had also directed the CBI to submit a status report on the probe into the alleged paper leak.

The Centre has asserted that there was no indication of mass malpractice or local set of candidates being benefited. The NTA has also said that Telegram videos allegedly showing photos of leaked question papers were fake and manipulated.

Citing a technical analysis of the NEET-2024 data carried out by experts from IIT-Madras, the Centre has told the Supreme Court that there was no indication of mass malpractice or local set of candidates being benefited.

In an affidavit filed in response to petitions seeking scrapping of the NEET-UG, the Union Ministry of Education asserted that there was “very less likelihood of mass malpractice”.

Citing the results of the analysis done by experts of IIT-Madras, the Centre said, “The analysis shows there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefited and leading to abnormal scores.”

It said, “There is an overall increase in the marks obtained by students, specifically in the range of 550 to 720. This increase is seen across cities and centres. This is attributed to 25 per cent reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and multiple centres, indicating very less likelihood of mass malpractice.”

Both the Centre and the NTA have opposed scrapping the examination.