NEET-UG 2024 row: The Supreme Court is hearing a series of petitions on Thursday regarding the controversy surrounding the NEET-UG 2024 medical entrance exam, which took place on May 5. A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is hearing over 40 pleas related to the case. During the hearing, CJI Chandrachud said any order for conducting the NEET-UG 2024 afresh has to be on the concrete footing that the sanctity of the entire exam was affected. "Re-examination has to be on concrete footing that the sanctity of the entire test was affected," he added. The top court also sought to know the top hundred ranks in the NEET-UG 2024 exam and which cities do they come from.
Among the petitions is one filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), seeking to transfer cases related to the NEET-UG controversy from various high courts to the Supreme Court in order to prevent multiple litigations. The top court had previously adjourned the hearing on these petitions on July 11, setting the new date for July 18. The adjournment was due to pending responses from the Centre and the NTA, which some parties had yet to receive. The petitions include requests for the cancellation of the exam, a re-test, and an investigation into alleged malpractices in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024. The bench had observed that it has received a status report from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the progress made in the probe into the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the exam.
Centre denies of 'mass malpractice' in examination
In an additional affidavit submitted to the apex court last week, the Centre stated that data analytics conducted by IIT-Madras on the NEET-UG 2024 results found no indication of "mass malpractice" or localised benefits leading to abnormally high scores. This assertion is significant in light of the Supreme Court's July 8 observation that it might order a re-test if large-scale malpractices were discovered. The Centre's latest affidavit highlighted that experts from IIT-Madras found the marks distribution to follow a bell-shaped curve, typical of any large-scale examination, indicating no abnormality. A bell curve describes the shape of data conforming to a normal distribution.
While hearing the pleas on July 8, the top court had observed that the sanctity of the NEET-UG 2024 has been "breached". Saying that a re-test may be ordered if the entire process was affected, the bench had sought details from the NTA and the CBI, including the timing and manner of the alleged paper leak, besides the number of wrongdoers to understand the extent of irregularities claimed by the petitioners.
NEET-UG 2024
On May 5, more than 23.33 lakh students appeared for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) at 4,750 centers across 571 cities, including 14 overseas locations. The exam, conducted by the National Testing Agency, is crucial for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in government and private institutions throughout India. In recent affidavits submitted to the Supreme Court, the Centre and the NTA argued against cancelling the exam. They emphasised that such a move would be "counterproductive" and would "seriously jeopardise" the futures of lakhs of honest candidates, especially in the absence of evidence pointing to a large-scale breach of confidentiality.
(With inputs from PTI)
