NEET UG 2024 compromised; extent of leak will determine whether retest is needed: Supreme Court

There is no doubt that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) exam (NEET ) held on May 5 was compromised by question paper leak, the Supreme Court said on Monday..However, the Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said it would have to determine to what extent the exam was compromised to decide whether a retest would be needed or not."The fact that the sanctity of the exam has been compromised is beyond doubt. Now, what is the consequence of that leak would depend on the nature of that leak. If it is not extensive, then there is no cancellation. Before we order a retest, we must be careful. We are dealing with the careers of 23 lakh students," the CJI remarked. In any case, the Court said that it was important to acknowledge that there were irregularities that took place during the exam this year."Let us not be in self-denial. Self-denial is only adding to the problem," the CJI said. The Court also said that if the leak was on social media, then it would have been very widespread. Hence, it set out the following parameters on the basis of which it would decide whether a retest would be needed or not.- One, whether the alleged breach took place at the systemic level;-Two, whether the breach is of a nature which affects the integrity of the entire exam process; and - Three, whether it is possible to segregate the beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students. If the breach of the exam's sanctity is widespread and if it is not possible to segregate tainted and untainted candidates, a retest may be ordered, the Court said.But if beneficiaries are identified and limited, then a retest won't be needed, the Court made it clear.Hence, the following details were sought from the National Testing Agency (NTA) which conducted the exam.- When did the leak first take place?- What was the manner in which the question papers leaked were disseminated?- What was the time duration between the leak and the exam on May 5?.The NTA shall also inform the Court about steps taken to identify beneficiaries of the leak, the steps taken by the NTA to identify the centres/ cities where the leak took place, and the modalities followed to identify beneficiaries of the leak.The Court further sought a status report from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on its probe into the alleged leak and malpractices. "We are also of the view that CBI shall file a status report before this court on the status of investigation as on today and material which has come to light till today," the Court directed.The Court added that the Central government and NTA should inform the Court about whether it would be feasible for the government's cyber forensics unit to use data analytics to identify suspicious cases, to segregate tainted from the untainted students. All these details have to be submitted by 5 PM on July 10. The case will be heard next on July 11, Thursday. .The Court was hearing a batch of petitions relating to alleged irregularities - including allegations of mass question paper leaks - in the conduct of the NEET-UG exam this year.On June 11, the Supreme Court ordered the NTA to respond to some of the petitions but refused to halt counselling for admissions of students to medical colleges.The Central government as well as the NTA had earlier contended that there is no need to cancel the exam or hold a retest as there was no proof of large-scale breaches of confidentiality..When the matter was heard today, Senior Advocate Hooda submitted on behalf of certain candidates that they were seeking cancellation of the exam and a re-exam. He submitted that the question paper for the exam had been disclosed via Telegram shortly before the May 5 exam. He alleged that there was a leak from the bank vaults at SBI and Canara Bank, where the question papers were stored prior to the exam date. .Hooda also pointed out that an extraordinarily high number of students secured full marks this year."In 2021 it was only three candidates who got full 720 marks. In 2020 there was only one candidate. This time 67 students got full marks," he submitted. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, however, maintained that all the alleged instances of exam irregularities were not cases involving allegations of paper "leaks." In one case, he said that wrong question papers were given, and extra time was provided after the correct papers were given. In another case, a superintendent was accused to tampering with the papers after collecting the answer papers, he said. .Hooda, however, asserted that the May 2024 NEET must be scrapped if the authorities are unable to properly identify who the wrong-doers are. "If the integrity of the exam has been compromised, if the beneficiaries of the machinations of fraud at the systemic level cannot be segregated from the untainted, then this court has held that not a single candidate will be allowed to get in by unfair means," he argued. The Court took note of the concern, but empahsised that it must be convinced that the exam irregularities were widespread before ordering any retest. "We are dealing with a situation of 23 lakh students," CJI Chandrachud pointed out. The Court, however, said that if the leaked question paper was found to be on social media, Telegram or WhatsApp, then it would have been a very widespread leak..The CJI went on to note that the technology available today should make it easier to identify the possible culprits. He suggested that data analytic studies could be conducted to flag suspicious cases. The Court also underscored that medicine is one of the most prestigious branches of study, while commenting on the seriousness of the case. "We are dealing with the most prestigious branch of study and every middle-class person wants their children to study either medicine or engineering," the CJI said.The CJI further observed that there were larger concerns involved in the matter."What are we doing to ensure that this will not happen in future and how are we planning to tighten the exam process? Is there an audit being conducted by the government on what went wrong? Assuming that we are not going to cancel the entire exam, what do we do between today and the date of admissions to identify who are beneficiaries of the fraud? (But firstly), do we cancel the exam or do we allow the counselling to go through by identifying the beneficiaries? On this first aspect, we would like to know from the government on identifying who are the beneficiaries of the wrongdoing," he said. .[Read order].NEET UG 2024: LIVE UPDATES from Supreme Court