The Supreme Court on Thursday (July 11) adjourned the hearing of the petitions seeking postponement of the NEET-UG 2024 exam till next Thursday (July 18).

The court granted the adjournment to enable the petitioners to file their replies to the affidavits filed by the Center and the National Testing Agency yesterday. Although the bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud initially suggested that the cases be listed next Monday (July 15), Advocate General of India Tushar Mehta cited a personal difficulty. The SG stated that both he and the Attorney General will not be available on Monday and Tuesday. Considering that next Wednesday is a holiday (due to Muharram), the court then adjourned the cases to next Thursday.

The bench lasting CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra considered a number of petitions to cancel the NEET-UG 2024 examination held on May 5 due to paper leak and unfair means.

Yesterday, the Union government filed an affidavit denying any mass malpractice in the NEET-UG 2024 exam. It said the data analysis done by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras showed that the mark distribution followed a bell-shaped curve seen in all large-scale surveys, indicating no anomalies.

The NTA, on its part, has filed an affidavit that the video showing a photo of the NEET UG exam leaked on Telegram on May 4 was fake. The timestamp was manipulated to create a false impression of an early leak, it added.

On the last date of hearing (July 8), a bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud sought the answers by the Union/NTA on the extent of the paper leak and any distinction between the perpetrators and others. The court said that if the integrity of the entire examination has been affected and it was impossible to distinguish the recipients of fraud from the honest candidates, then a retest may be necessary. The court also said that the retest would be the last option, considering the impact on nearly 24 lakh students.

What is NEET-UG all about?

Notice was issued on May 17 in the leading petition titled Vanshika Yadav v. Union of India which is seeking to re-conduct NEET UG 2024, in the light of the alleged malpractices and paper leak of the exam.

While the Supreme Court refused to grant a stay on the results of the NEET-UG 2024 exam, the bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud agreed to consider the matter and posted it for hearing after the summer vacation (in July).

Several petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court since then, alleging that the nationwide inquiry held on May 5 by the NTA was riddled with malpractices as various cases of paper leaks came to light. After the announcement of the NEET-UG results, further pleas were raised against the “arbitrary” granting of grace marks to 1536 candidates due to “waste of time” allegedly giving “backdoor entry” to some individuals.

One of the petitions in the party seeks to recall the results of NEET-UG 2024 and conduct a fresh examination. Other petitions demand CBI probe into the alleged malpractices in the conduct of the examination. Notice has been issued in these cases and they have been tagged for a combined hearing.

Opposing the demands for ‘re-NEET’ and annulment of the results of NEET-UG 2024 examination, a petition has also been filed in the Supreme Court by 56 Gujarat-based medical students for not re-taking the NEET.

Another petition alleges, among other things, the involvement of NTA officials in tampering the OMR sheets.

When the party was last heard on July 8, the court questioned the Union government and the NTA regarding the nature of the paper leak and the steps taken to identify the beneficiaries of fraudulent practices. Stating that the existence of the paper leak in the NEET-UG examination could not be denied, it further held that what remained to be determined was whether the nature of the leak was widespread or isolated, to decide the question of ordering a re-test.

Important developments during the hearing of the vacation bench

When the petitions came up for hearing before a vacation bench, the court orally emphasized the need for the NTA to accept responsibility if there have been any mistakes on its part. It also noted that it was imperative for the NTA to effectively respond to the court in view of how the “entirety” of the NEET-UG examinations has been affected.

On June 21, the Supreme Court refused to stay the counseling process for medical admissions and clarified that all such admissions will be subject to the outcome of the pending petitions. On July 5, NTA and Center announced that they were not in favor of canceling the exam completely.

It may be noted that on June 22, the Ministry of Education constituted a high-level committee of experts to make recommendations on “Reform of the review process mechanism, improvement of data security protocols and structure and functioning of NTA”. The expert committee will be headed by former ISRO chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan.

Case Details : Vanshika Yadav v. UOI, WP(C) no. 335-/2024 (and related cases)