NEET UG 2024: Supreme Court rejects plea for re-examination

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to order a reexamination for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test undergraduate exam for the year 2024 (NEET UG 2024) [Vanshika Yadav vs. Union of India]..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the evidence before it was not sufficient to show a widespread leak of question paper as alleged by the petitioners who moved the Court."We are of the considered view that ordering the cancellation of the entire NEET UG 2024 exam is neither justified on application of settled principles propounded by the decisions of this court (nor) on the basis of material on record," the Court said.As of now, the Court said that the leak was limited to a few students who can be separated from the untainted ones and hence, no reexamination would be needed."In arriving at the ultimate conclusion, the Court is guided by the well-settled test of whether it is possible to segregate tainted students from those whose candidature does not suffer from any taint," the order said..The key takeaways from the verdict today include the following:1. Ordering cancellation of NEET UG 2024 is unjustified.2. While it is not disputed that question paper leaks/ breaches happened in Patna, Hazaribagh, there is no material yet to show a systemic breach affecting sanctity of NEET. In this regard, the Court said,"At the present stage there is absence of material on the record sufficient to lead to the conclusion that the result of the examination stands vitiated or that there is a systemic breach of the sanctity of the examination."3. The Court accepted the report by IIT Delhi committee on the correct answer to one of the questions over which there was a dispute. Between options 2 and 4, option 4 was accepted as correct answer. The National Testing Agency (NTA) was directed to re-tally the NEET UG results on this basis.4. Students with individual grievances can approach High Court, after withdrawing their petitions (if any) from the Supreme Court.5. The seven-member expert committee formed by Central government may be issued further directions by the Court to ensure conduct of NEET UG is strengthened and such issues don’t arise in future..The admissions to medical colleges across the country for undergraduate courses is based on NEET UG score. The NEET-UG exam this year was marred by allegations of mass question paper leaks and cheating.Several NEET candidates, therefore, approached the Supreme Court seeking a reexamination. However, there were also students who argued against any retest. The Central government and the NTA too had vehemently opposed any retest. .The Court today declined to order a retest after opining that the data on record was not indicative a systemic or widespread leak of the question paper which would indicate a disruption of the sanctity of the exam as a whole.However, the Court also noted that a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter was yet to conclude. The Bench added that if the probe reveals more tainted candidates or beneficiaries of any malpractice, action can be taken at any stage even if such a student has completed the college counselling process. The Court also made it clear that no student who is revealed to have been part of fraud or a beneficiary of malpractices would be entitled to claim any vested right in continuance of admission. The Court went on to observe that directing a fresh NEET UG would have serious consequences for over 24 lakh students and would disrupt the admission schedule. It added that this could have cascading effects on medical education, impact the availability of qualified medical professionals in the future and also seriously disadvantage marginalised students for whom reservation was made in allocation of seats.Ultimately, it refused to order a retest, but clarified that individual students who still have any grievance may approach the concerned High Court for relief. .During today's hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had reiterated the NTA's stance that there was no widespread leak of the NEET paper across India, as alleged by several petitioners."Whether there is pan India effect or not. There is no such effect. Top 100 students are spread across 95 centres in 56 cities and 18 States/UTs," he pointed out.He also argued that there was no substantial difference in results from various exam centres and States, when compared to the results from the previous years. "See the success rates in Bihar, Patna and Belgavi. The success rate matches earlier years. Impression was made as if a student went to Belgavi as if some large scale malpractice was going on ... See the percentile.. Bihar (Patna).. 49.22 percent is the success rate. Jharkhand Hazaribagh success rate is 47.28 percent," he highlighted..The SG further made submissions on how certain cities like Kota have the reputation of running coaching centres for competitive exams."There are certain hubs like Kota, Sikar, Kottayam, Namakkal, Rajkot, for coaching centres of competitive exams and exams like UPSC etc. The word 'factory' has been used with reference to the recent web series. These students are given dummy papers every alternative day so that they are trained in such type of competitive exams. Like when they sit finally for NEET, it would be the 201st exam probably (that they are writing)," the SG argued."So the students appearing for exam there are not domiciles then," the CJI asked."No no. Parents send their children to study in such places. Examples of these places will not help this court because these are sui generis centres," the SG said..Notably, the Court quizzed the SG with regard to distribution of question paper sets that were stored in Canara Bank. Notably, the Canara Bank question papers were meant to be back up papers, while the papers stored at SBI were meant to be used for the exam. "How was Canara Bank paper distributed? Who authorised the city coordinator," the CJI queried.The SG admitted that this was human error."There are human errors which happen when we are dealing with 24 lakh students," he said. However, he assured the Court that the Canara Bank papers were equally difficult as the papers stored at the SBI's lockers. He also maintained that the malpractices caught at Hazaribagh was confined to that area. Burnt remains of the 'leaked' and duplicated question paper contained a unique number that belonged only to one candidate, Mehta explained. The candidate too had flagged to the CBI that the seal of her question paper had been tampered with, SG Mehta added. If any other question paper had been unsealed before the exam, it would have been noticed, SG Mehta informed. "The papers are one time tear-able. So the person who committed theft tore it, got the photographs and resealed it using the lighter. We have the statement of the girl also (that her paper was sealed with a lighter)," Mehta explained. .In rejoinder submissions, Senior Advocates Hooda and Sanjay Hegde expressed doubts over the CBI's hypothesis regarding how the question people leak happened. Hegde pointed out that if the CBI's version of events is accepted, the students at Hazaribagh only had roughly a two-hour window to get the leaked answers and memorise it. "For that uncertain chance of two hours, which parent will pay 30 to 75 lakhs in advance? ... When preparations are made for people to pass or get ranks, they need adequate time. This kind of timeline does not work. This brief two-hour intervention is not plausible," Hegde said.Hooda maintained that the leak is more widespread than the CBI is leading the court to believe."This examination cannot be sustained... especially when the handiwork is of a gang operating inter-State, the main mastermind is yet to be arrested, there is no denying that mobiles were used for dissemination of the sold question paper have not been recovered ... As on today, the whole world is watching. Paper has been leaked by a gang - investigation is happening, mobiles not recovered - is there any sanctity left for this examination?" Hooda had argued. .Senior Advocates Narender Hooda, Sanjay Hegde, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, Santosh Paul, Amit Anand Tiwari, Sudhanshu Choudhari, PV Dinesh, Thomas P Joseph, and A Hariprasad appeared for the students.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Union government.Senior Advocate Naresh Kaushik appeared for the NTA..[Read order]