NEET-UG 2024: Supreme Court indicts NTA for ‘serious lapses’

Satya Prakash

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New Delhi, August 2

The Supreme Court on Friday indicted the National Testing Agency (NTA) for “serious lapses” in conducting the NEET-UG 2024 that hit national headlines following 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 that security measures which are stringent and effective must be implemented by NTA,” a three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud said, adding, “Multiple occurrences in the conduct of the exam prompt the court to make these observations.”

The Bench – which also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra – said that “the manner in which NTA has organised the exam this year gives rise to serious concerns” even as it maintained that the integrity of the NEET was not vitiated at a systemic level.

Maintaining that it was cognizant of the fact that national-level exams with participation from tens of lakhs of students required immense resources, coordination, and planning, the Bench said, “But that is precisely the reason for the existence of a body such as NTA.”

The top court said, “It is no excuse to say that the exam is conducted in myriad centres or that a large number of aspirants appear for the exam. NTA has sufficient resources at its disposal. It has adequate funding, time and opportunities to organise exams such as the NEET without lapses of the kind that occurred this year.”

It also sought to highlight the fact that the question papers were sometimes transported in e-rickshaws and that the services of private courier companies were availed of.

The Bench -- which had on July 23 refused to order a cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 held on May 5 -- expanded the remit of the Centre-appointed seven-member expert panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan constituted to review the NTA’s functioning and recommend exam reforms.

Around 24 lakh students appeared for controversy-ridden NEET-UG 2024 Examination conducted on May 5 by the National Testing Agency (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.

It said senior counsel Narender Hooda rightly pointed out on behalf of the petitioners that NTA did not specify a time by which the OMR sheets were required to be sealed after the conclusion of the exam.

“In the absence of a stipulation in this regard, dishonest persons may tamper with the OMR sheets even after the candidates have submitted them and exited the exam hall. Another point of concern is that NTA relies on persons over whom it does not exercise direct oversight to be the invigilators for the exam. There are various methods which may be adopted to ensure appropriate oversight over invigilators and decrease the likelihood of the use of unfair means,” it said.

“All of these issues indicate that the security protocols must be tightened to decrease the possibility of malpractice and fraud and to lessen access by private persons to the question papers.

“In at least 12 centres, the question paper stored in Canara Bank was wrongly distributed to candidates. The question paper which should have been distributed was the one stored in the SBI. In many centres, aspirants completed the incorrect question paper and were ultimately evaluated while in others, the relevant authorities realised the mistake and then distributed the correct question paper,” the Bench said.

“This either indicates that the city coordinators were irresponsible and not fit for duty or that the information as to which question paper was to be distributed to candidates was not properly communicated to them. Certainly, neither Canara Bank nor SBI appear to have been notified as to whether the papers in their custody were to be released. As long as the city coordinators furnished proof of authorisation, the papers were released without question. The custodian banks have to be informed as to whether they should release the question papers in their possession.

“Had the custodian banks been informed whether or not to release the papers in their possession, the city coordinators would have been unable to collect the incorrect set of question papers, even if they made an honest mistake. NTA must consider the various possibilities and plan the protocol to be followed after careful consideration,” the top court noted.