Supreme Court Review Petition Challenges Decision On NEET-UG 2024 Exam

A review petition contests the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that denied a fresh NEET-UG 2024 exam.

The petition, submitted under Article 137 of the Constitution, disputes the court’s 23 July verdict, which concluded there was no systemic leak of the question paper that would undermine the integrity of the exam.

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Review petitions typically address limited issues such as legal errors or apparent discrepancies in the record. They often resolve in chambers and rarely proceed to open court hearings.

In its detailed ruling, the bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud acknowledged the potential disruption a new exam could cause for over two million students who sat for the NEET-UG on 5 May.

Despite this, the court emphasized that its decision would not hinder actions against candidates who used fraudulent methods to gain admission.

The Supreme Court also expanded the scope of the High-Level Committee of Experts formed by the Centre to address the NEET-UG controversy.

The committee, led by Dr. K Radhakrishnan, former ISRO Chairman and IIT Kanpur Board of Governors Chairman, has tasked with developing a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the exam’s administration.

This includes guidelines for registration timelines, exam center changes, and OMR sheet handling.

The committee’s findings are to be submitted to the Union Ministry of Education by 30 September.

The Ministry is likely to make decisions on the committee’s recommendations within a month of receiving the report.

Additionally, the Supreme Court criticized the National Testing Agency (NTA) for initially awarding compensatory marks to 1,563 students due to time loss, a decision later rescinded following multiple petitions.

The court has instructed the NTA to re-evaluate the marks based on the expert panel’s review of a controversial physics question.

This issue arose when 44 candidates received full marks due to NTA’s decision to accept two options as correct for the ambiguous question.

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