‘No systemic breach of exam sanctity’: SC refuses to order NEET-UG retest

Satya Prakash

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New Delhi, July 23

Ending weeks of uncertainty over admission to undergraduate medical courses across India, the Supreme Court on Tuesday 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, said.

The Bench — which also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra — said “directing a fresh NEET-UG for the present year would be replete with serious consequences which will be for over 2 million students who appeared in this exam and would cause disruption of the admission schedule.”

The cancellation of the exam could have cascading effects on the course of medical education, impact on availability of qualified medical professionals in the future and would be seriously disadvantageous for the marginalised groups for whom reservation was made in the allocation of seats, it said.

“We are of the considered view that ordering the cancellation of the entire exam is not justified on application of settled principles propounded by the decisions of this court on the basis of the material on record,” it said.

The Bench sought to emphasise that the material on record was not indicative of a systemic leak of the question paper which would indicate a disruption of the sanctity of the examination.

Regarding a particular question in Physics section of NEET-UG 2024 Examination, the top court accepted the expert opinion of a three-member panel appointed by IIT-Delhi Director on its order and accordingly ordered the NTA to re-tally the examination result on the basis that option 4 represented the only correct answer to the question.

The Bench directed that individual candidates having any grievance against the results could approach their jurisdictional high courts after withdrawing their petitions filed in the Supreme Court, if any.

The order paves way for the commencement of counselling process from July 24 for admission to undergraduate courses in government and private medical colleges across India. Around 24 lakh students had appeared for NEET-UG 2024 conducted on May 5 by the NTA.

Revised result in two days: NTA

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced on Tuesday that the NTA will declare the revised result for NEET-UG 2024 within two days. The results will be revised based on the Supreme Court’s observation. In a social media post on X, Pradhan demanded an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.