The Supreme Court Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra will hear a batch of petitions challenging the alleged malpractices and irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
 
On May 17, a Bench led by the CJI had issued notice on a petition alleging a paper leak of the NEET-UG exam and posted the matter on July 8 (the day of re-opening after the summer vacations). The Bench also turned down a prayer to stay the declaration of the results on the same day.

The petitioners alleged that the nationwide examination held on May 5 by the NTA was riddled with malpractices as various instances of paper leaks came to light. 

Following the declaration of the NEET-UG results on June 4, additional pleas were filed in the Apex Court raising concerns over the fairness of the procedure adopted by NTA, the grant of grace marks to 1563 candidates, and the need for a CBI probe into the conduct of examination, along with a prayer to hold the NEET-UG afresh.

The petitioners raised objection to the 'arbitrary' grant of grace marks to 1536 candidates on the grounds of 'loss of time,' purportedly to give 'back-door entry' to certain individuals.

Notice was issued in these matters, and the same were tagged together for a combined hearing on July 8.

On multiple occasions, the top court of the country has verbally stressed the need for NTA to accept accountability, if there have been any mistakes on its part. 

When the petitions came up for hearing before the Vacation Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta, it also observed that it was imperative for NTA to efficiently answer the Court, considering how the 'sanctity' of the NEET-UG Examinations has been affected.

During the hearing, the Central government informed the Court that a decision had been taken to cancel the grace marks of 1563 candidates.

On June 21, the Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice SVN Bhatti refused to stay the counselling/seat allotment process for NEET-UG, scheduled to commence on July 6. 

The Bench had orally observed that any medical admissions will be subject to the final outcome of the pending petitions.

On June 22, the Ministry of Education constituted a high-level committee of experts to make recommendations on 'Reform in the mechanism of the examination process, improvement in Data Security protocols and structure and functioning of NTA'. Former ISRO Chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan was made the head of the committee.