NEET UG 2024: LIVE UPDATES from Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is hearing a batch of pleas relating to alleged irregularities in the conduct of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for undergraduate medical college admissions this year (NEET-UG), with some students seeking a re-exam and others opposing the same.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is hearing the matter.

The NEET-UG exam this year was marred by allegations of mass question paper leaks and cheating.

Both the Central government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) which conducted the exam have argued against cancelling NEET 2024.

During the hearing of the matter on July 8, the Court had observed that there was no doubt that NEET 2024 was compromised, but added that whether or not a re-exam would be needed would depend on the extent of the leak.

The Court also posed certain questions for the NTA and the Centre to answer.

In response, the Central government filed an affidavit stating that a data analytics study indicated there were no abnormalities and that the chances of mass malpractices having taken place are unlikely.

The NTA's reply claimed that the time stamp of a video cited by some of the petitioners to claim that a mass paper leak had happened a day before the May 5 exam, was edited to create a "false impression of an early leak."

The NTA added that 153 cases of unfair means have been reported and that a committee has recommended withholding the results of 81 candidates and debarring 54 candidates for upto 3 years. 16 FIRs have been registered regarding NEET (UG) 2024, it added.

The agency also addressed concerns that an abnormally high number of students achieved perfect scores (720/720) this year.

The NTA said that if students who received grace marks or marks due to an error in a question are removed, the number of such students would come down from 67 to 17.

Track this page for live updates from today's hearing.

[Watch the hearing]