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Synopsis

The Supreme Court today told the National Testing Agency that it should not be in self-denial as it was a well know fact that the NEET UG 2024 exam question paper was leaked.

"We have to identify what the suspicious markers are..WE SHOULD NOT BE IN SELF DENIAL..NOW EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT THERE WAS A LEAK..we have to see what do we do now to ensure that the leak does not take place again..", a CJI DY Chandrachud led bench said today.

Notably, in the plethora of petitions that have been filed before the Supreme Court relating to the NEET UG 2024 exam, the court has decided to first hear the petitioners seeking a re-test.

Senior Advocate Hooda, appearing for the petitioners told the bench also comprising Justices Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that the fault is at a systemic level and at a large scale.

Court went on to direct NTS for filing an affidavit disclosing the following details broadly:

1. the nature of leak, the places of leak and when the leak of the paper has taken place,
2. dentification of the beneficiaries of the leak, and
3. whether it is possible to segregate the beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students.

CJI has also sought for a status report from the CBI which has been entrusted with the investigation of the paper leak.

Two days, back the Union government submitted an affidavit before the Supreme Court opposing the plea to cancel the NEET UG 2024 held on May 5 for admission to undergraduate courses in medical colleges across the country, saying scrapping the exam in entirety would seriously jeopardise the lakhs of honest candidates.

Education Ministry submitted the Union government is committed towards conduct of all competitive examinations in a fair and transparent manner. 

As regards these alleged instances, the Ministry said it has asked the premier investigation agency, Central Bureau of Investigation which functions at national level, to conduct a comprehensive probe into the entire gamut of alleged irregularities including conspiracy, cheating, impersonation, breach of trust, destruction of evidence by the candidates/institutes/middlemen. CBI has registered the case on June 23, 2024 u/s 120B, r/w 420, 419, 409, 406, 201 IPC and Sec 13(2) r/w 13(1)(a) of PC Act. 

As many as 56 NEET qualified candidates from Gujarat have also approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre and the National Testing Agency to restrain from cancelling the all India test held on May 5, 2024 and take action against only those who indulged in unfair means or any illegal activity.

A petition has also been filed before the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the National Testing Agency (NTA) not to pass any order amounting to cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 examination.

On June 14, the Supreme Court of India had also issued notice in a plea seeking CBI probe into the alleged leak of NEET UG entrance paper. Court sought responses from both NTA and Central government while clarifying that it is not going to stop the ongoing counselling process.

In another plea, Central government had informed the Supreme Court that the grace marks given to candidates who got less than the allotted time to write the NEET undergraduate exam 2024 have been cancelled.

The Supreme Court has been flooded with pleas over the NEET UG 2024 examination. A fresh plea was also filed by Alakh Pandey, questioning the NTA's decision to award grace marks to 1563 candidates due to time loss in NEET -UG examination, leading to shooting up of overall merit list.

While dealing with a writ petition filed by Shivangi Mishra and others over the alleged leak of the NEET UG paper, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah also issued notice to the National Testing Agency's (NTA) seeking its response saying the "sanctity of the exam seemed to have been affected".

Another plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a fresh examination of NEET, held on May 5, 2024 for admission to medical colleges across the country, in view of alleged paper leak and other malpractices.

The court, however, had refused to stay the ongoing counselling for admissions. The plea seeking a direction for a fresh examination to admission to undergraduate courses in medical colleges across the country has also been fixed for hearing on July 8, when another such plea is scheduled to come up for consideration.

Cause Title: Shivangi Mishra & Ors vs. National Testing Agency