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The Supreme Court today refused to hear a plea seeking cancellation of the NEET-UG 2021 Entrance Examination over alleged leakage of the exam paper.

A divisional bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice BR Gavai said, "It'll be detrimental to a large number of students."

The plea alleges that according to a First Information Report (FIR) dated by the Central Bureau of Investigation i.e. CBI, it is crystal clear that the "entrance examination paper was leaked under a criminal conspiracy wherein involvement of renowned coaching centers and paper solver gangs have been found."

Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid appearing for the petitioners submitted that the prayer seeking cancellation of paper may be kept aside and the Court may seek a report over the issue from the authorities.

Whereas, Justice L Nageswara Rao said, "Whatever we say will be taken as otherwise and it will create more problem."

The Court over the request of Khurshid allowed the petitioners to withdraw the petition.

The plea filed had also sought direction to conduct examination afresh to protect the interest of genuine, deserving and meritorious candidates. 

"There are multiple FIRs registered in different states on the same cause of action and any such admission based on examination i.e. NEET –UG as conducted by National Testing Agency in the year 2021- is certainly violative of Article 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution of India as it smacks of unfairness to those sincere and meritorious candidates," the plea added.

The petitioner has further submitted that the initial investigation clearly suggests that the NEET-UG 2021 entrance examination held on September 12, 2021 irreversibly vitiated by the use of fraudulent means and unfair practices.

The plea has relied upon the Judgment in the case of “Tanvi Sarwal vs. Central Board of Secondary Education and Ors." wherein the All India Pre-Medical /Pre-Dental Entrance Test held on May 3, 2015, for Academic Session 2015-2016 (conducted by CBSE) was canceled by the apex court.

The petition has been filed through Advocate on Record Ravi Prakash.

Case Title: Vishwanath Kumar and Ors. Vs. National Testing Agency and Ors.