The Supreme Court on Monday said that a leak of the NEET UG 2024 exam has happened and the sanctity of the exam has been compromised.
While hearing around 38 petitions related to NEET UG 2024 exam irregularities and a demand for retest, Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said that if the leak has been propagated through social media and authorities are unable to identify the guilty people then the re-test has to be ordered.
“Before we order a re-test, we must be conscious of the extent of the leak as we are dealing with 23 lakh students…this concerns cost to be incurred.. travelling… dislodging of the academic schedule. So what is the nature of the leak, how was the leak… The time.. how was the leak disseminated… What are the actions which the Centre and NTA have taken to identify the beneficiary students of the wrongdoing, we want to know all of this,” the CJI said.
A three-judge bench, comprising the CJI and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, is currently hearing the petitions.
Furthermore, the CJI has questioned about the paper leak that has taken place in two exam centres.
The CJI has sought an answer on how the NTA sends question papers for printing, and how they are distributed.
“When were the papers pulled out? What time was the exam? How were the papers distributed abroad? When were they sent abroad? How were they sent to embassies? Diplomatic bag or courier?, the CJI has asked, reported LiveLaw. The top court has questioned whether the paper leak took place on the day of the exam, May 5, or before. “The beneficiaries need to be identified,” the bench said.
SC’s Big Questions On NEET Paper Leak
The Supreme Court also asked the following questions about the conduct of the NEET-UG examination.
- What is the percentile distribution across categories?
- Is the distribution of marks skewed at the top?
- How many students’ results have been withheld due to the paper leak, and what is the spread?
The CJI said that the answers to these questions would give the top court an indication of whether the exam pattern was comparatively easier compared to last year.
The top court said it wanted to know how many people benefited from the question paper leak and what actions were taken against them by the Centre.
Re-test Has to Be Ordered: SC on NEET Paper Leak
The Supreme Court said that if the sanctity of the medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2024 is “lost” and if the leak of its question paper has been propagated through social media, then a re-test has to be ordered.
“If the sanctity of the exam is lost, then a re-test has to be ordered. If we are unable to identify those who are guilty, then a re-test has to be ordered,” the bench observed, adding that if the leak was propagated through social media, then a re-test has to be ordered.
SC Seeks Full Disclosure On Nature, Lag Between Leak
The court also stressed a re-test could only be ordered if there was sufficient time (the court did not specify how much this should be) between the leak of the questions and the conduct of the exam.
The CJI also asked the NTA to disclose the nature of the leak, the places where the paper leak occurred, and the lag between the conduct of the exam and the leak.
“If time lag was too long then there needs to be a re-test or, if we can’t identify candidates who are guilty of wrongdoing, then a retest has to be ordered,” the Supreme Court said.
SC Directs CBI To File A Status Report
The Supreme Court also asked the CBI to file a status report on investigations into the paper leak FIRs by Wednesday.
The matters would be heard again on Thursday. SC also asked NTA and Centre to answer all queries it raised and said a decision on a re-test would be taken based on these responses.
The CJI also said that the affidavit by NTA, Union and the one by the CBI shall be placed on record at 5 pm on Wednesday and submitted to the counsel of the petitioners as well.
The matter will be next heard on July 11. Both the NEET-UG and UGC-NET matters are currently under investigation by the CBI.
On the Supreme Court’s hearing on the NEET-UG 2024 exam, Advocate Shwetank, who is representing petitioners, said, “The Supreme Court has raised some questions which have to be answered by the NTA and Union Government. Supreme Court has asked them to provide the data within the next three days.”
“How the paper has travelled? What time was it sent to the examination centre? What time was it distributed to the students? The Supreme Court observed if segregation is possible then re-examination is not mandatory,” he added.
According to the council, the NTA says different things about the paper leak case.
On one hand, the NTA said that the paper leak has happened at a minuscule level, and on the other hand, the CBI is investigating 6 cases with FIRs registered in Patna, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand, the counsel stated.
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