Supreme Court directs NTA to declare centre-wise results of NEET-UG while masking identity of candidates

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, July 18

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to declare by Saturday 12 noon the centre and city-wise results of NEET-UG 2024 after masking the identities of candidates.

“We direct the NTA to publish the marks obtained by students at the UG-2024 NEET examination, while, at the same time, without disclosing the identity of the students. The result should be declared city and centre wise by 12 noon on 20 July 2024 and shall be uploaded on the website of the NTA,” the Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud said.

The order came after senior counsel Narender Hooda submitted on behalf of the petitioners that in the absence of complete city-wise and centre-wise results the petitioners were handicapped in pointing out discrepancies in NEET-UG 2024 and that publishing the entire results on the website by the NTA will bring about transparency on the centre wise marks obtained by candidates.

The Bench – which also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra rejected Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s repeated requests that apart from the identity of candidates, the names of cities and centres should also be masked.

Citing a Bihar Police report, Hooda asserted that the paper was leaked a day before and it could be widespread.

The Bench also ordered that “The material collected by the Bihar Police through the investigation and the report of the Economic Offences Wing of Bihar Police, before the investigation was taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation, shall be filed with the Court Master by 5.00 p.m. on 20 July 2024.”

As the hearing on petitions seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 remained inconclusive, the Bench deferred the hearing to July 22.

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

Hooda said unless the petitioners were given access to the entire city-wise and centre-wise results of NEET-UG 2024, they would be unable to contest and contradict the claims made by the Centre on the basis of the technical analysis of NEET-2024 data carried out by experts from IIT-Madras.

On the issue of the CBI status report on the probe, the CJI said, “The CBI probe is on. If what the CBI has told us is revealed, it will affect the investigation and people will become wise.”

The top court made it clear that any order for conducting the NEET-UG 2024 afresh has to be based on the concrete evidence that the sanctity of the entire examination was widely affected even as it raised doubts over the stand of the Centre and the NTA that the paper leak happened only about 45 minutes before the start of the examination at certain centres.

“The hypotheses that the question papers were leaked, solved and given to students to memorize all within 45 minutes on the morning of the exam date (May 5), appeared to be too far-fetched,” said the Bench.

Noting that the probe indicated that question papers were sold for Rs 75 lakh, the CJI wondered if parents would pay Rs 75 lakhs for a paper leaked just 45 minutes before the examination. The petitioners have also demanded a re-test and a court-monitored probe into the alleged paper leak and other malpractices in the test held on May 5.

During the hearing, Mehta said counselling was expected to commence from July 24.

At the very outset, noting that the case has its “social ramifications”, the Bench adjourned other cases listed ahead of the NEET-UG petitions. “We will open the case today. Lakhs of young students are waiting for this, let us hear and decide,” it said and went on to hear the matter for the whole day.

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.

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.

In an affidavit filed in the top court, the Union Ministry of Education asserted that there was “very less likelihood of mass malpractice”.

Both the Centre and the NTA — which conducts the NEET-UG test – have opposed scrapping the examination.

While the Centre maintained that scrapping the entire examination would seriously jeopardise lakhs of honest candidates who didn’t adopt any unfair means, the NTA said cancellation of the exam “would be hugely counterproductive and significantly harmful to the larger public interest, especially to the career prospects of the qualified candidates”.