The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of a batch of petitions alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the NEET-UG 2024 exam, held on May 5, to July 18.
A bench of CJI D.Y. Chandrachud along with Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra postponed the hearing to allow petitioners time to file their responses to the affidavits submitted by the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Wednesday.
The Court noted that some parties involved in the case had not yet received the affidavits filed by the Centre and the NTA and need time to prepare their responses before arguments.
On July 11, the Central Government filed an affidavit denying any widespread malpractice in the NEET-UG 2024 exam. The Centre’s affidavit, based on data analytics from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, stated that there was no evidence of mass malpractice or a localized group of candidates benefiting from the exam, resulting in abnormal scores. It also mentioned that counseling would commence in four rounds starting from the third week of July. The affidavit added that if any candidate is found to have benefited from malpractice, their candidature would be canceled at any stage during or after the counseling process.
The NTA’s affidavit claimed that a video showing a photo of the NEET-UG exam paper leaked on Telegram on May 4 was fake, with the timestamp manipulated to create a false impression of an early leak. The NTA also reported that its analysis of the distribution of marks at various levels—National, State, City, and Centre—indicated a normal distribution, with no extraneous factors affecting the results.
The Top Court is addressing a series of petitions seeking to recall the NEET-UG 2024 results and conduct a fresh examination, alleging paper leakage and malpractices. Aspirants have raised issues concerning the leakage of the question paper, compensatory marks, and anomalies in the NEET-UG exam.
The NEET-UG, conducted by the NTA, is essential for admissions into MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and related courses at government and private institutions across the country. The NEET-UG 2024 was held at 4,750 centers on May 5, with approximately 24 lakh candidates participating.
