The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to cancel the NEET UG 2024 exam on the basis of paper leak and malpractices. It stated that there was no material to indicate that the leak was systemic affecting the sanctity of the entire exam.
The court further mentioned that directing a re-examination will lead to serious consequences affecting more than 23 lakh students, and will also disrupt the academic schedule, resulting in a cascading effect in the following years.
Acknowledging that there was a paper leak in Hazaribagh (Jharkhand) and Patna (Bihar), the apex court observed that there is no sufficient material on record to lead to the conclusion that the results of the exam stand vitiated in its entirety or that there was a systemic breach in the sanctity of the exam.
The court mentioned that they are of view that ordering Re-neet or cancellation of the entire NEET-UG 2024 exam is not justified on the application of the settled tests propounded by decisions of the court on the grounds of the material on record.
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra pronounced the order in a batch of pleas seeking to cancel the NEET held for Under-Graduates (UG) medical admissions on May 5, 2024 for paper leak and malpractices. The results of the exam were declared on June 4.
Furthermore, the court also disapproved of the decision of NTA to treat two options as correct answers for one question. Agreeing with the expert report prepared by an expert team constituted by IIT-DElhi regarding the ambiguous question, the apex court noted that both options are mutually exclusive and cannot stand together.
Hence, the Supreme Court directed the NTA to re-tally the results accordingly. Meanwhile, the Centre and NTA took stand that the leak was localised in nature and the beneficiaries were identifiable. The Centre also underlined a data analytics report prepared by the IIT-Madras which showed no abnormalities in the results or indication of mass malpractice.
The court also clarified that it is mindful of the fact that ordering a fresh NEET-UG test for the present year would be replete with serious consequences for more than 2 million students, along with disruption of the admission schedule, cascading effects on the course of medical education, prejudicial impact on the availability of qualified medical professionals in future, and serious element of disadvantage to marginalised groups of students for whom reservations have been made in the allocations of seats.