The Supreme Court will hear a series of petitions on July 18 regarding alleged paper leakage and malpractices in the NEET-UG 2024 exam, which was held on May 5 this year.
The case will be presented before a bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
The hearing, initially scheduled for July 15, was adjourned to allow petitioners time to respond to affidavits submitted by the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA). The adjournment was necessary as some parties involved in the case had not yet received these affidavits and needed time to prepare their responses.
In an affidavit filed on July 11, the Central government denied any widespread malpractice in the NEET-UG 2024 exam. The Centre’s submission included data analytics from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, which indicated no signs of mass malpractice or localized irregularities leading to abnormal scores. The affidavit also mentioned that the counselling process for the exam would be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July, and any candidate found to have benefited from malpractice would have their candidature canceled at any stage.
The NTA, in its affidavit, also dismissed claims of a leaked exam paper, stating that the video purportedly showing a leaked NEET-UG exam paper on Telegram on May 4 was fake and manipulated to give a false impression of an early leak. The NTA’s analysis of the distribution of marks at various levels (National, State, City, and Centre) indicated a normal distribution, suggesting no external influence on the marks.
The Supreme Court is handling multiple pleas seeking to recall the NEET-UG 2024 results and conduct the examination afresh due to allegations of paper leakage and malpractices. Aspirants have approached the court, raising concerns about question paper leakage, the awarding of compensatory marks, and anomalies in the examination.
NEET-UG, conducted by the NTA, is a crucial exam for admissions into MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in government and private institutions across India. The 2024 exam took place across 4,750 centers on May 5, with around 24 lakh candidates appearing.
