The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition that alleged discrepancies in the NEET-PG examination conducted in 2022 for admissions to postgraduate courses in various medical science streams. The plea had sought the disclosure of answer keys and answer sheets, but the court rejected these demands, thereby upholding the integrity of the examination process as it stands. The decision comes as a significant development for candidates and institutions involved in the NEET-PG admissions process.
What did the top court say?
"These petitions are rendered infructuous due to the passage of time,” said a vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah while dismissing a plea filed by a candidate named Pritish Kumar and others in 2022. The counsel for Kumar and others said the plea has not become infructuous as two out of the six petitioners would be taking up NEET-PG on June 23 this year.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Post Graduate (NEET-PG) examination is conducted by the National Board of Examination (NBE) for admissions in various PG courses after the students complete MBBS, BDS and other equivalent courses. "The trouble is they (NBE) are not allowing us to access the answer keys, answer sheets, question papers (of NEET-PG 2022),” the lawyer said.
The bench rejected the plea saying that it cannot keep it pending “unnecessarily”. Pritish Kumar and others had filed the plea alleging that there were mismatches in their NEET-PG 2022 scores and the NBE was not permitting re-evaluation.
SC seeks Centre, NTA response
Meanwhile, the apex court on Tuesday also sought the response of the Centre and the National Testing Agency on a plea seeking fresh conduct of medical entrance exam NEET-UG, 2024, on the grounds of alleged question paper leak and other malpractices. Taking note of the allegations of paper leak and other malpractices, a vacation bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah said, "It is not that simple that because what you have done is sacrosanct. Sanctity has been affected, so we need answers." The top court, however, refused to stay the counselling of successful candidates for admissions to MBBS, BDS and other courses.
(With inputs from PTI)
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