Sanctity of NEET-UG affected, need answers: SC on row over ‘paper leak’

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, June 11

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the counselling for admissions to medical colleges even as it asked the Centre and National Testing Agency (NTA) to respond to petitions seeking the cancellation of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 over alleged paper leak and malpractices.

67 students got AIR 1; probe must, say petitioners

• Petitioners point out same roll number sequence of many among 67 top rankers
• Most were from same centres in Rajasthan (11), Tamil Nadu (8), Maharashtra (7), Haryana (6), Andhra Pradesh (4) and Bihar (4)
• There were no more than two-three toppers in last few years; NTA claims given grace marks to candidates for loss of time during exam

Around 22 lakh students appeared for the examination conducted on May 5 by the NTA across 4,750 centres in 511 cities across the country and 14 centres abroad for admissions to more than 700 medical institutions. The results were declared on June 4.

Now, the counselling of successful candidates for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions is to take place.

A Vacation Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice A Amanullah issued notices to the Centre and NTA on petitions filed by Shivangi Mishra and other medical admission aspirants seeking the cancellation of NEET-UG and a probe into the alleged paper leak. “It is not that simple… Sanctity has been affected, we need answers,” Justice Amanullah told the NTA counsel. However, despite repeated requests by the petitioner’s counsel, the Bench didn’t agree to stop counselling. “We will not stop the counselling. If you argue further, we will dismiss this (petition),” the Bench said, posting the matter for further hearing on July 8.

On May 17, a Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud had refused to stay the publication of NEET-UG results. However, it had issued a notice on that petition and posted the matter for hearing in July. Now both petitions would be heard together. On behalf of the petitioner, advocate Mathews J Nedumpara demanded a stay on the counselling. The Bench, however, said, “Let the counselling start, we are not stopping the it.”

The petitioners alleged “paper leak” gave an undue advantage to some candidates over others who wrote the examination in a fair manner.

As 67 students got a perfect score of 720 out of 720, many candidates pointed out the same sequence of roll numbers of some of the top rank holders. A majority of them were from the same examination centres in Rajasthan (11), Tamil Nadu (8), Maharashtra (7), Haryana (6) and four each from Andhra and Bihar. In 2019 and 2020, there was one topper each, while there were three toppers in 2021, one in 2022, and two in 2023. The NTA said candidates who faced loss of time during the test had been granted grace marks as at several centres there was a delay in distribution of question papers.