The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to order a reexamination for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test undergraduate exam for the year 2024 (NEET UG 2024).
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the evidence before it was not sufficient to show a widespread leak of question paper as alleged by the petitioners who moved the Court.
“We are of the considered view that ordering the cancellation of the entire NEET UG 2024 exam is neither justified on application of settled principles propounded by the decisions of this court (nor) on the basis of material on record,” the Court said.
The key takeaways from the verdict today include the following:
1. Ordering cancellation of NEET UG 2024 is unjustified.
2. While it is not disputed that question paper leaks/ breaches happened in Patna, Hazaribagh, there is no material yet to show a systemic breach affecting sanctity of NEET. In this regard, the Court said,
“At the present stage there is absence of material on the record sufficient to lead to the conclusion that the result of the examination stands vitiated or that there is a systemic breach of the sanctity of the examination.”
3. The Court has accepted by IIT Delhi committee on the correct answer to a controversial question. Between options 2 and 4, option 4 is accepted as correct answer. NTA has been directed to re-tally the NEET UG results on this basis.
4. Students with individual grievances can approach High Court, after withdrawing their petitions (if any) from the Supreme Court.
5. The seven-member expert committee formed by Central government may be issued further directions by the Court to ensure conduct of NEET UG is strengthened and such issues don’t arise in future.
The admissions to medical colleges across the country for undergraduate courses is based on NEET UG score.
The NEET-UG exam this year was marred by allegations of mass question paper leaks and cheating.
Several NEET candidates, therefore, approached the Supreme Court seeking a reexamination. However, there were also students who argued against any retest. The Central government the NTA too had vehemently opposed any retest.
The Court today declined to order a retest after opining that the data on record does not indicate a systemic leak of the question paper which would indicate a disruption of the sanctity of the exam as a whole.
However, the Court also noted that a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter is yet to conclude.
The Bench added that if the probe reveals more tainted candidates or beneficiaries of any malpractice, action can be taken at any stage even if such a student has completed the college counselling process.
No student who is revealed to have been part of fraud or a beneficiary of malpractices would be entitled to claim any vested right in continuance of admission, the Court said.
The Court went on to observe that directing a fresh NEET UG would have serious consequences for over 24 lakh students and would disrupt the admission schedule.
It added that this could have cascading effects on medical education, impact the availability of qualified medical professionals in the future and also seriously disadvantage marginalised students for whom reservation was made in allocation of seats.
Ultimately, it refused to order a retest, but clarified that individual students who still have any grievance may approach the concerned High Court for relief.
During today’s hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had reiterated the NTA’s stance that there was no widespread leak of the NEET paper across India, as alleged by several petitioners.
“Whether there is pan India effect or not. There is no such effect. Top 100 students are spread across 95 centres in 56 cities and 18 States/UTs,” he pointed out.
He also argued that there was no substantial difference in results from various exam centres and States, when compared to the results from the previous years.
“See the success rates in Bihar, Patna and Belgavi. The success rate matches earlier years. Impression was made as if a student went to Belgavi as if some large scale malpractice was going on … See the percentile.. Bihar (Patna).. 49.22 percent is the success rate. Jharkhand Hazaribagh success rate is 47.28 percent,” he highlighted.
The SG further made submissions on how certain cities like Kota have the reputation of running coaching centres for competitive exams.
“There are certain hubs like Kota, Sikar, Kottayam, Namakkal, Rajkot, for coaching centres of competitive exams and exams like UPSC etc. The word ‘factory’ has been used with reference to the recent web series. These students are given dummy papers every alternative day so that they are trained in such type of competitive exams. Like when they sit finally for NEET, it would be the 201st exam probably (that they are writing),” the SG argued.
Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/neet-ug-2024-supreme-court-rejects-plea-reexamination