NEET-UG Row: ‘Retest Only On Concrete Footing’, Says Supreme Court

On Thursday, the Supreme Court stated that any decision to re-conduct the NEET-UG 2024 exam must be based on “concrete footing”.  And evidence that the examination’s sanctity has been compromised on a large scale.

Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, along with Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, emphasized, “It has social ramifications.”

The Supreme Court ordered the NTA to make all candidates’ marks public by Saturday, with their names masked. It also directed the declaration of results on a center-wise basis. The court will hear the matter next on July 22. During the hearing, the Solicitor General informed the court that “a solver gang member in Hazaribagh received the question via WhatsApp.”

The Supreme Court heard over 40 petitions related to alleged paper leaks and large-scale irregularities in the medical examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

The Supreme Court told senior advocate Narendra Hooda, who represented the petitioners, that for a re-examination to be considered.  It must be evident that the paper leak was so systemic and evident that it affected the entire examination’s sanctity.

Government’s stand on NEET-UG Retest

The Centre and the National Testing Agency, which conduct the NEET-UG, opposed the demand for a retest. Arguing that the alleged malpractices and irregularities were localized and did not compromise the integrity of the entire medical examination.

Ahead of today’s hearing, the central government filed an affidavit stating that data analytics of the NEET-UG 2024 results, conducted by IIT-Madras, showed no indication of “mass malpractice”.  Or a localized set of candidates benefiting from the same and scoring unusually high marks.

The NTA also submitted an affidavit, stating that its analysis of the marks distribution at the national, state, and city levels. Showed higher marks obtained by some NEET candidates were “not a systematic failure.” The exam body noted that reducing nearly 25 percent of the syllabus helped candidates score better in the examination.

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