Supreme Court Adjourns NEET-UG 2024 Hearing, Next Hearing on July 18

NEET-UG 2024 Exam Controversy Continues

The Supreme Court on Thursday (July 11) adjourned the hearing of the petitions seeking the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 exam until next Thursday (July 18). The Court granted the adjournment to enable the petitioners to file their responses to the affidavits filed by the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Wednesday.

Centre and NTA's Responses

Yesterday , the Union Government filed an affidavit denying any mass malpractice in the NEET-UG 2024 exam. It said that the data analytics done by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras showed that mark distribution followed a bell-shaped curve that is seen in any large-scale exam, indicating no abnormalities.

The NTA, on its part, has filed an affidavit stating that the video showing a photo of the NEET UG exam paper leaked on Telegram on May 4 was fake. The agency claimed that the timestamp was manipulated to create a false impression of an early leak.

Supreme Court's Stance

On the last hearing date (July 8), a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud sought the responses of the Union/NTA on the extent of the paper leak and possible segregation of the wrongdoers from others. The Court said that if the sanctity of the entire exam has been affected and it was impossible to separate the beneficiaries of fraud from the honest candidates, then a re-test may be necessary. However, the Court also said that the re-test would be the last option, considering the impact on nearly 24 lakh students.

Petitions Filed

Several petitions have been filed before the top Court since, alleging that the nationwide examination held on May 5 by NTA was riddled with malpractices as various instances of paper leaks came to light. Subsequent to the declaration of the NEET-UG Results, additional pleas were raised against the 'arbitrary' grant of grace marks to 1536 candidates on grounds of 'loss of time' purportedly to give 'back-door entry' to certain individuals.

One of the petitions in the batch seeks recall of the NEET-UG 2024 results and conduct of a fresh examination. Other petitions seek CBI investigation into the alleged malpractices in the conduct of the exam.

Opposing the calls for 're-NEET' and cancelling results of the NEET-UG 2024 exam, a petition has also been filed in the Supreme Court by 56 Gujarat -based medical students for not re-conducting NEET afresh.

Next Hearing on July 18

The Supreme Court has now adjourned the hearing to next Thursday, July 18, to allow the petitioners to file their responses to the affidavits submitted by the Centre and NTA. The bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will continue to hear the batch of petitions seeking the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 exam.