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 18, the Court had remarked that the leak of question paper of NEET UG 2024 prima facie seemed to be a limited one and not a widespread one on a large scale.

Therefore, it had expressed doubts over whether the Court can cancel the exam and order a reexam on the basis of such a limited leak.

The Court had said that going by the evidence and the timeline of events, it was unlikely that a mass leak had happened and it seemed that the wrongdoing was limited to two cities - Patna and Hazaribagh.

The Central government has said on affidavit 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."