Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2024 Supreme(SC) 603

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Dr. Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, CJI., J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, JJ.
Vanshika Yadav – Appellant
Versus
Union of India and Others – Respondent
Writ Petition (Civil) No 335 of 2024 with Writ Petition (Civil) No. 362 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 369 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 368 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 431 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 379 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 377 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 376 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 375 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 425 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 401 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 415 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 407 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 412 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 383 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 419 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 406 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 403 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 398 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 414 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 423 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 404 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 427 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 441 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 420 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 430 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 446 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 410 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 382 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 381 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 394 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 384 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 389 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 417 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 393 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 435 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) Diary No. 28729 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1741 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 449 of 2024; Writ Petition (Civil) No. 392 of 2024; Transfer Petition (Civil) No. 1659 of 2024; Transfer Petition (Civil) No. 1597 of 2024; Transfer Petition (Civil) No. 1600 of 2024; Transfer Petition (Civil)No.1602 of 2024; Transfer Petition (Civil) No. 1596 of 2024; Transfer Petition (Civil) No. 1808 of 2024; Transfer Petition (Civil) No. 1741 of 2024; Transfer Petition (Civil) No. 1737 of 2024; Transfer Petition (Civil) No. 1735 of 2024 and Transfer Petition (Civil) No. 1730 of 2024
Decided on : 23-07-2024

Advocates appeared:
For the Petitioner(s): WPC 335/2024 & WPC 377/2024 : Mr. Narender Hooda, Sr. Adv., Mr. Sumit Kumar Sharma, Adv., Mr. Rajat Sangwan, Adv. Mr. Anurag Kulharia, Adv. Mr. Vaibhav Yadav, Adv. Dr. Navya Jannu, Adv. Mr. Sunny Kadiyan, AOR Mrs. Parul Dagar, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Sheoran, Adv. Mr. Anas Chaudhary, Adv. Ms. Shehla Chaudhary, Adv. Mr. Hemendra Singh Kashyap, Adv. Mohd. Sharyab Ali, Adv. Mr. Shaurya Lamba, Adv. Mr. Shiv Bhatnagar, Adv. Mr. Aditya Mishra, Adv. Mr. Ashish Kumar Pandey, Adv. Mr. Yuvraj Nandal, Adv. Ms. Manisha Sharma, Adv. Mr. Gyan Prakash, Adv. Ms. Keerti Singh, Adv. Ms. Divya Kumari Singh, Adv. Ms. Tannu, Adv. Mr. Vedant Pardhan, Adv.
WPC 362/2024 : Mr. Mathews J. Nedumpara, Adv. Ms. Usha Nandini V., AOR Ms. Maria Nedumpara, Adv. Ms. Hemali Kurne, Adv. Ms. Rohini Amin, Adv. Mr. Shameem Fayiz, Adv.
WPC 369/2024 : Mr. Sanjay R. Hegde, Sr. Adv. Mr. Shwetank Sailakwal, AOR Mr. Tanmaya Agarwal, Adv. Mrs. Aditi Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Deepak Panjwani, Adv. Mr. Anas Tanwir, Adv. Mr. Ebad Ur Rahman, Adv. Mr. Mayank Suryan, Adv. Mr. Zaid Raza, Adv. Mr. Shahrukh Ali, Adv. Mr. Ankit Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Tanay Hegde, Adv. Ms. Riya Sharma, Adv. Mr. Prateek Chandra, Adv. Mr. Durgesh Shukla, Adv. Mr. Mohammad Asif Abbas, Adv. Mr. Raghav Gupta, Adv. Mr. Aayushman Jauhari, Adv. Ms. Aparna Jauhari, Adv. Mr. Aakarsh Mishra, Adv.
WPC 368/2024 : Mr. Aslam Ahmed Jamal, AOR Mr. Rohit Jain, Adv. Ms. Shabiesta Nabi, Adv. Ms. Kheyali Singh, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Dwivedi, Adv. Mr. Arun Kumar Arunachal, Adv. Mr. Tasleem Arif, Adv. Mr. Satyapal Singh, Adv. Mr. Raees Ahmad, Adv. Mr. Harilal S, Adv. Mr. Rahat Khan Afridi, Adv. Ms. Latika Rungta Bajaj, Adv. Mr. Zeeshan Haider, Adv.
WPC 431/2024 & WPC 446/2024 : Mr. Haris Beeran, Adv. Mr. Azhar Assees, Adv. Mr. Anand B. Menon, Adv. Ms. Maneesha Sunilkumar, Adv. Mr. Radha Shyam Jena, AOR
WPC 379/2024 : Mr. Kunal Cheema, AOR Mr. Raghav Deshpande, Adv. Mr. Shubham Chandankhede, Adv.
WPC 376/2024 : Mr. S.D. Singh, Adv. Ms. Bharti Tyagi, AOR Ms. Shweta Sinha, Adv. Mr. Ram Kripal Singh, Adv. Ms. Meenu Singh, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Singh, Adv.
WPC 375/2024 : Mr. Ashish Pandey, AOR Mr. Prateek Rai, Adv. Mr. Ashutosh Bhardwaj, Adv. Mr. Shubham Saxena, Adv. Dr. Daksha Sharma, Adv. Ms. Aarti Sharma, Adv. Mr. Anmol Goyal, Adv. Mr. Anshuman Singh Khangarot, Adv. Mr. Aditya Mishra, Adv.
TPC 1659/2024, TPC 1597/2024, TPC 1600/2024, TPC 1602/2024, TPC 1596/2024, TPC 1808/2024, TPC 1741/2024, TPC 1737/2024, TPC 1735/2024 & TPC 1730/2024 : Mr. Naresh Kaushik, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vardhman Kaushik, AOR Mr. Anand Singh, Adv. Mr. Mayank Sharma, Adv. Ms. Sanjana Mehrotra, Adv. Mr. Nishant Gautam, Adv. Mr. Sanjana Mehrotra, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Joshi, Adv. Mr. Vinay Kauhsik, Adv. Mr. Ajay Kanojiya, Adv. Mr. Rudra Rout, Adv. Mr. Vinay Kaushik, Adv. Ms. Shikha John, Adv. Mr. Shubham Dwivedi, Adv.
WPC 425/2024 : Ms. Charu Mathur, AOR Ms. Tanvi Dubey, Adv. Mr. Anukrit Gupta, Adv. Mr. Mekala Ganesh Kumar Reddy, Adv.
WPC 401/2024 :Mr. Anilendra Pandey, AOR Mr. C.P. Singh, Adv. Mr. Manoj Kumar, Adv. Mr. Rajeev Kumar Ranjan, Adv. Ms. Priya Kashyap, Adv.
WPC 415/2024 :Mr. Shiv Sagar Tiwari, AOR Mrs. Neetu Verma, Adv. Mr. Satendra Singh, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Chauhan, Adv.
WPC 407/2024 :Mr. Nishesh Sharma, AOR
WPC 412/2024 :Mr. Shivam Singh, Adv. Mr. Avdhesh Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Rajendra Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Parth Sarathi, Adv. Mr. Gyanendra Vikram Singh, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Kumar Maurya, Adv. Ms. Soumya Gulati, Adv. Mr. Sanjay Kumar Visen, AOR
WPC 383/2024 :Mr. Dheeraj Kumar Singh, Adv. Dr. Arstu Upadhyay, Adv. Mr. Baldev Pathania, Adv. Mr. Eshu Aggarwal, Adv. Ms. Manshi Ahuja, Adv.
WPC 335/2024 :Ms. Mrinalini Dayal, Adv. Ms. Anu Batra, Adv. Ms. Resha Panwar, Adv. Mr. Sudhir Naagar, AOR
WPC 419/2024 :Mr. Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, Sr. Adv. Mr. Shamim Ahammed, Adv. Mr. Supratik Sarkar, Adv. Mr. Arnab Sinha, Adv. Mr. Arko Maity, Adv. Mr. Saurav Gupta, AOR
WPC 406/2024 :Mr. Alakh Alok Srivastava, AOR Mr. Rishabh Bafna, Adv.
WPC 403/2024 :Mr. Aditya Singh, AOR Mr. Kamal Kishor, Adv. Mr. Aditya Kumar, Adv. Mr. Vaseem, Adv.
WPC 398/2024 :Mr. Tanmay Yadav, AOR
WPC 414/2024 :Mr. Santosh Paul, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sriharsh Nahush Bundela, AOR Mr. Vedant Mishra, Adv.
WPC 423/2024 :Mr. B.K. Pal, AOR Mr. Chinmoy Khaladkar, Adv.
WPC 404/2024 :Mr. Suhaas Ratna Joshi, AOR Mr. Mahendra Singh Rawat, Adv. Ms. Mallika Joshi, Adv. Mr. P. Ramesh, Adv.
WPC 427/2024 :Mr. Raghav Sabharwal, AOR Ms. Tanvi Dubey, Adv. Mr. Anukrit Gupta, Adv. Mr. Mekala Ganesh Kumar Reddy, Adv.
WPC 441/2024 :Dr. Avinash Poddar, Adv. Ms. Anchal Poddar, Adv. Mr. Gaurav Gupta, Adv.
WPC 335/2024 :Ms. Diva Singh, Adv. Ms. Rudrani Mishra, Adv. Ms. Samiksha Goswami, Adv. Mr. Awadhesh Sharma, Adv. Mr. Devendra Singh, AOR Mr. Hiren Trivedi, Adv. Mr. Anuj Aggarwal, Adv.
WPC 420/2024 :Mr. Shubhanshu Gupta, AOR Mr. Chaitanya, Adv. Mr. Kartik Pant, Adv. Mr. Anand Kumar Singh, Adv.
WPC 430/2024 :Ms. A Sumathi, Adv. Ms. Ila Shikhar Sheel, AOR
WPC 410/2024 :Mr. Sumeer Sodhi, AOR Mr. Aman Nandarjog, Adv. Mr. Ujjwal Malhotra, Adv.
WPC 382/2024 :Mr. Feroz Shaikh, Adv. Mr. Aamir Naseem, Adv. Mr. Inam Ahmad Khan, Adv. Mr. Danish Zubair Khan, AOR
WPC 381/2024 :Mr. Amit Anand Tiwari, Sr. Adv. Ms. Yoothica Pallavi, AOR Mr. Aditya Shanker Pandey, Adv. Mr. Atul Kumar, Adv. Ms. Rekha Bakshi, Adv. Mr. Shaurya Sahay, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Sehrawat, Adv. Mr. Aditya Kumar, Adv. Ms. Tanvi Anand, Adv. Mr. Vishal Ranjan, Adv.
WPC 394/2024 :Petitioner-in-person
WPC 384/2024 :Mr. Shaju Francis, Adv. Ms. Meenakshi Kalra, AOR Mr. S N Kalra, Adv. Mr. Kamal, Adv.
WPC 335/2024 :Ms. Jyoti Sharma, Adv. Mr. Chandan Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Tusharika Sharma, Adv.
WPC 389/2024 :Mr. A. Karthik, AOR
WPC 417/2024 :Ms. Abiha Zaidi, AOR Ms. Suriti Chowdhary, Adv. Mr. Anuj Bhave, Adv. Mr. Pritam Raman Giriya, Adv.
WPC 393/2024 :Mr. Sanjay R. Hegde, Sr. Adv. Ms. Mithu Jain, AOR Mr. Shashwat Jaiswal, Adv.
WPC 435/2024 :Mr. Ravi Kumar, Adv. Mr. Divakar Kumar, AOR Diary 28729/2024 :Mr. Adutiya Veer, Adv. Mr. Karunakar Mahalik, AOR Mr. Varun Kumar, Adv. Mr. Manoranjan Mishra, Adv. Mr. Gournga Biswal, Adv. Mr. Manoj Kumar, Adv. Mr. C.P. Singh, Adv. Mrs. Monika, Adv. Mr. Sarbendra Kumar, Adv.
WPC 449/2024 :Ms. Isha Singh, AOR
WPC 392/2024 :Mr. Sunil Kumar Agarwal, AOR Mr. Narendra Mishra, Adv. Mr. Vinod Kumar Dwivedi, Adv. Mrs. Amita Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Amarjeet Sahani, Adv. Mr. Parvinder, Adv. Mr. Sachin Kumar Srivastava, Adv.
For the Respondent(s): Mr. Tushar Mehta, SG Mr. Amrish Kumar, AOR Mr. K. Parmeshwar, Adv. Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. WPC 335/2024 Mr. Mayank Pandey, Adv. Mr. Udai Khanna, Adv. Mr. Rajat Nair, Adv. Mr. Madhav Sinhal, Adv. Mr. Tushar Mehta, SG Mr. Naresh Kaushik, Sr. Adv. Mr. Kanu Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Vardhman Kaushik, AOR Mr. Nishant Gautam, Adv. Mr. Ajay Kanojia, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Joshi, Adv. Mr. Ajay Kanojya, Adv. Mr. Ajay Kanoiya, Adv. Mr. Anand Singh, Adv. Mr. Mayank Sharma, Adv. Ms. Sanjana Mehrotra, Adv. Mr. Ajay Kanojiya, Adv. Ms. Shikha John, Adv. Mr. Rudra Rout, Adv. Ms. Ananya Sharma, Adv. Mr. Subham Diwedi, Adv. Mr. Shubham Dwivedi, Adv. Mr. Vinay Kaushik, Adv. Mr. Tushar Mehta, SG Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Varun Chugh, Adv. Mr. Bhuvan Kapoor, Adv. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR Mr. Samarpit Gupta, Adv. Mr. Ivan, Adv. Mr. Pranjul Chopra, Adv. Mr. Vivek Mathur, AOR Mr. Sanyat Lodha, AOR Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, AOR Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, AAG Mrs. Abhinandini Sharma, Adv. Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, Adv. WPC 335/2024 Mr. Saurabh Rajpal, Adv. Ms. Shalini Singh, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Bharat Bagla, Adv. Mr. Sourav Singh, Adv. Mr. Aditya Krishna, Adv. Ms. Preet S. Phanse, Adv. Mr. Adarsh Dubey, Adv. Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR Mr. Simranjeet Singh Rekhi, Adv. Mr. Kartikeya Rastogi, Adv. Mr. Akshay Girish Ringe, AOR Mr. P. Wilson, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sabarish Subramanian, AOR Mr. C. Kranthi Kumar, Adv. Mr. Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Adv. Mr. Apoorv Malhotra, Adv. Mr. Naman Dwivedi, Adv. Mr. Lokesh Krishnan, Adv. Mr. Sarathraj B, Adv. Mr. Danish Saifi, Adv. Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR Ms. Meera Kaura, AOR Mr. Tejas Patel, Adv. Ms. Tanushree Bhalla, Adv. Ms. Muskaan Gandhi, Adv. Ms. Ritika Saini, Adv. Mr. Aditya Kumar Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Rai, Adv. Mr. Vikash Vadit, Adv. Mr. Piyush Goel, Adv. Mr. Sunpreet Bawa, Adv. Mr. Tarun Bajaj, Adv. Mr. Pawan Aneja, Adv. WPC 335/2024 Mr. Jugul Kishor Gupta, AOR Mr. Raj Narayan Singh, Adv. Mr. Dilip Kumar, Adv. Ms. Babila K.k., Adv. Mr. Santosh Kumar Jha, Adv. Mr. Varinder Kumar Sharma, AOR Ms. Sangeet Joshi, Adv. Mr. Shantanu Sharma, Adv. Mr. R.D. Rathore, Adv. Ms. Deeksha Gaur, Adv. Mr. Sudhanshu Choudhari, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sagar Pahune Patil, AOR Ms. Pranjal Chapalgaonkar, Adv. Ms. Gautami Yadav, Adv. Mrs. Sangeeta S. Pahune Patil, Adv. Mr. Varinder Kumar Sharma, AOR Ms. Sangeet Joshi, Adv. Mr. Shantanu Sharma, Adv. Mr. R.D. Rathore, Adv. Ms. Deeksha Gaur, Adv. Mr. Abhinav Raghuvanshi, AOR Mr. Kushagra Pandey, Adv. Mr. Avinash Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Yashaswi Sk Chocksey, Adv. Mr. Ankit Singh, Adv. Mr. Sushant, Adv. Mr. Vijay Rajput, Adv. Mr. Yashish Chandra, Adv. Ms. Neha Rai, Adv. Mr. Madhup Kumar Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Rajnish Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Abhilash M.R., Adv. Mr. Sayooj Mohandas, Adv. Mr. Tom Jospeh, Adv. Mr. Gautam Kumar Laha, Adv. WPC 335/2024 Mr. Arun Kumar, Adv. Ms. Sandra Jaison, Adv. M/s. M.R. Law Associates Dr. Avinash Poddar, Adv. Ms. Anchal Poddar, Adv. Dr. Gaurav Gupta, Adv. Ms. Rudrani Mishra, Adv. Ms. Samiksha Goswami, Adv. Mr. Devendra Singh, AOR Mr. Ashwin Kumar Nair, AOR Mr. Ritik Gupta, Adv. Mr. Sunil Gupta, Adv. Mrs. Sheetal Gupta, Adv. Mr. Puneet Khanna, Adv. Mr. Mayank Aggarwal, AOR Mr. Pradeep Kumar Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Vineet Yadav, Adv. Mr. Amir Yadav, Adv. Mr. P.V. Dinesh, Sr. Adv. Ms. Anna Oommen, Adv. Ms. Anne Mathew, AOR Mr. Sanchit Garga, AOR Mr. Namit Saxena, AOR Mr. Divik Mathur, Adv. Mr. Nikhil Jain, AOR Ms. Divya Jain, Adv. Mr. Thomas P Joseph, Sr. Adv. Mr. A Hariprasad, Sr. Adv. Mr. Bijo Mathew Joy, AOR Ms. Gifty Marium Joseph, Adv. Mr. Dinny Thomas, Adv. Ms. Swathi H Prasad, Adv. Ms. Anzu K Varkey, Adv. WPC 335/2024 Mr. Jasbir Singh Malik, Adv. Ms. Chandni Sharma, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Pareek, Adv. Mr. Varun Punia, AOR Mr. Kailash Prashad Pandey, AOR Mr. Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Chawla, Adv. Mr. S.K. Rajora, Adv. Mr. Akhileshwar Jha, Adv. Mr. Mahi Pal Singh, Adv. Ms. Manisha Chawla, Adv. Ms. Niharika Dewivedi, Adv. Ms. Yamini Sharma, Adv. Ms. Ritika Raj, Adv. Mr. Neeeraj Shrivsatav, Adv. Mr. Varun Varma, Adv. Mr. Prahkar Sukla, Adv. Mr. Ajay Mishra, Adv. Mr. Harender K Sangwan, Adv. Mr. Akash, Adv. Ms. Chanchal, Adv. Mr. Shashank Gusain, Adv. Mr. Ashish Pandey, AOR

IMPORTANT POINT
National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (UG) 2024 – Leakage of question paper – No student who is revealed to have engaged in acts of fraud or to have been beneficiary of malpractice would be entitled to claim a vested right or interest in continuation of admission in future by virtue of findings in this judgment – Directing a fresh NEET (UG) to be conducted for present year would be replete with serious consequences for over two million students who have appeared in examination.

Headnote:
Education – National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (UG) 2024 – Leakage of question paper – No student who is revealed to have engaged in acts of fraud or to have been beneficiary of malpractice would be entitled to claim a vested right or interest in continuation of admission in future by virtue of findings in this judgment – Directing a fresh NEET (UG) to be conducted for present year would be replete with serious consequences for over two million students who have appeared in examination – Adopting such a course of action would, in particular, (i) lead to disruption of admission schedule for commencement of medical courses, setting back entire process by several months; (ii) lead to cascading effects on course of medical education; (iii) impact the availability of qualified medical professionals in future; and (iv) cause a serious element of disadvantage to students belonging to marginalized communities and weaker sections for whom reservation has been made in allocation of seats – If any student, including in present batch, has individual grievance not bearing on issues which have been resolved by this judgment, it would be open to them to pursue their rights and remedies in accordance with law, including by moving jurisdictional High Courts under Article 226 of Constitution – However, before moving High Court for grant of relief, petitioners would have to seek withdrawal of their petitions before this Court – Union Government has constituted a Seven-Member Expert Committee – Committee will abide by such further directions as may be issued by this Court in its final judgment and order in regard to areas which should be enquired into by it so as to ensure that (i) process of conducting NEET (UG) and other examinations falling within remit of NTA is duly strengthened; and (ii) instances which came to light during course of present year are not repeated in future. (Paras 11, 12, 21, 22 and 23)
Facts of the case:
National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (UG) 2024 examination was conducted by National Testing Agency on 5 May 2024. Results were declared on 4th June 2024. In this batch of cases, petitioners assert that a direction should be issued for convening a re-test on the ground that (i) there was a leakage of question paper; and (ii) there are systemic deficiencies in modalities envisaged for conduct of examination.
Findings of Court:
Resulting transferred cases shall stand disposed of in terms of directions subject to clarification that individual grievances, if any, that remain, may be addressed before jurisdictional High Court. Interlocutory applications raising individual grievances are similarly permitted to be withdrawn with liberty reserved in the terms.
Result : Transfer petitions allowed.

ORDER

1. The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (UG)¹["NEET (UG)"] 2024 examination was conducted by the National Testing Agency²<["NTA"] on 5 May 2024. The results were declared on 4 June 2024.

2. The examination was conducted at 4,750 centres comprised within 571 cities, besides 14 cities overseas. About 23,33,297 candidates appeared for the examination. They are competing for 1.08 lac medical admissions at the undergraduate level, of which approximately 56,000 seats are in government hospitals while the balance 52,000 seats are in privately managed institutions.

3. The 50th percentile represents the cut-off for qualification. The examination consists of 180 questions, each carrying four marks, thus making a total of 720 marks overall. One negative mark is assigned for an incorrect answer. Based on the result of the NEET (UG) 2024, the 50th percentile has worked out to 164 marks out of 720. Candidates who have attained this threshold are eligible to be considered for admission but are not guaranteed admission into the MBBS program. Seats are allocated both among the unreserved category of students and the reserved category, consisting of candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Economically Weaker Sections.

4. In this batch of cases, the petitioners assert that a direction should be issued for convening a re-test on the ground that (i) there was a leakage of the question paper; and (ii) there are systemic deficiencies in the modalities envisaged for the conduct of the examination.

5. The submission which has been urged on behalf of the petitioners is that the leak which took place in the course of the NEET (UG) examination is systemic in nature and, coupled with the structural deficiencies in the conduct of the examination, the appropriate course of action in view of the previous decisions of this Court, including in Tanvi Sarwal vs Central Board of Secondary Education and Others, (2015) 6 SCC 573 and Sachin Kumar and Others vs. Delhi Subordinate Service Selection Board (DSSSB) and Others, (2021) 4 SCC 631 is to direct a re-test.

6. By an interim order dated 8 July 2024, this Court called for disclosures on affidavit by the NTA; the Union of India; and by the Central Bureau of Investigation³["CBI"]. While flagging the principal issues in contention, the CBI has been involved in the process because the FIRs which were registered in Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Bihar have been transferred to it for investigation. In the earlier order, this Court noted that it would have to scrutinize the following aspects on the basis of the data which would emerge on the record, namely:

(ii) Whether the breach is of a nature which affects the integrity of the entire examination process; and

(iii) Whether it is possible to segregate the beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students.

7. Directions were consequently issued to the above agencies of the Union to make specific disclosures on the issues which have been highlighted in the previous order.

8. Arguments have been heard over four days. We have had the benefit of considering the submissions urged on behalf of the petitioners, the Union of India and the NTA. Mr Y V Krishna, Additional Director, CBI has in the course of the proceedings apprised the Court on the status of the investigation.

9. Arguments have been concluded and judgment has been reserved.

10. There is an urgent need to provide certainty and finality to a dispute which affects the careers of over two million students. Hence, it is imperative that the final conclusions of the Court be recorded at the present stage. The reasons for the ultimate conclusions will follow later.

11. We proceed to record the essential conclusions in the following terms:

Click Here to Read the rest of this document

2024 Supreme(SC) 603

Cases Referred (2)

Related Judgments

Vanshika Yadav VS Union of India - 2024 Supreme(SC) 603

Vanshika Yadav VS Union of India - 2024 5 Supreme 705

Rishu Ranjan vs The Examination controller of Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Exam Board - 2025 Supreme(Online)(Pat) 1910

Vishwanath Kumar vs National Testing Agency

Vishwanath Kumar VS National Testing Agency - 2022 Supreme(Del) 349

Roshan Yadav D/o Shri Ramji Lal Yadav vs Union of India, through the Secretary, New Delhi - 2025 Supreme(Raj) 2029

PRIYANSHI PRIYADARSHINI DASH vs UNION OF INDIA - 2025 Supreme(Online)(Ori) 5950

Sanidhya Subhadarshan vs National Testing Agency - 2026 Supreme(Online)(Del) 172

HARSHIT AGRAWAL Vs NATIONAL TESTING AGENCY AND ORS. - 2026 Supreme(Online)(Del) 70

National Testing Agency, (National eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (UG)-2020), Rep. by Secretary, New Delhi VS K. S. Manoj(Minor) - 2022 Supreme(Mad) 143