Scrapping Of NEET-UG 2024 Will Jeopardise Interest Of Candidates, Centre to SC

The Centre informed the Supreme Court that it would be irrational to scrap the NEET-UG 2024 examination, as there is no proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality. They emphasised that the results have already been declared and invalidating the exam without substantial evidence would be unwarranted, aiming to uphold the credibility and continuity of the medical admission process.

New Delhi:The Centre has told the Supreme Court it would not be rational to scrap the entire NEET-UG 2024 examination, of which results are already declared, in the absence of any proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in the pan-India medical examination.

In an affidavit filed in the apex court, the Ministry of Education said that the Union Government is committed towards conduct all competitive examinations fairly and transparently. “It is also submitted that in the absence of any proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in a pan-India examination, it would not be rational to scrap the entire examination and the results already declared," said the affidavit.

The affidavit said that it is submitted that in any examination there are competing rights that have been created whereby the interests of a large number of students, who have taken the examination without adopting any alleged unfair means must not also be jeopardised.

The Central Government said it remains committed to protecting the interest of lakhs of students, who attempted the question paper fairly. “Scrapping the exam in its entirety would seriously jeopardise the lakhs of honest candidates, who attempted the question paper in 2024," said the affidavit.

The Central Government said that the Ministry of Education has constituted a high-level committee of experts to suggest effective measures for conducting transparent and fair conduct of examinations by the National Testing Agency (NTA). The government said the committee shall make recommendations on reforms in the mechanism of the examination process, improvement in data security protocols and structure and functioning of NTA. The committee is headed by Dr K Radhakrishnan, former chairman, of ISRO and chairman of BoG, IIT Kanpur, and will submit its report in two months.

The affidavit said the committee has started its deliberations and already four meetings have been held and also started consultation with stakeholders’ especially students’ and has sought suggestions and ideas online till July 7.

A batch of 26 petitions is scheduled to come up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra on July 8. Several petitioners moved the apex court against the alleged discrepancies in the medical examination.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country. The NEET-UG, 2024, was held across 4,750 centres on May 5 and around 2.4 million candidates appeared in it. The results were announced on June 4 due to early completion of the answer-sheet evaluation. Allegations of irregularities, including paper leaks, led to protests in several cities.

In a separate affidavit, the NTA, reiterating the Centre’s stand, said that the cancellation of the entire examination would be hugely counterproductive and significantly harmful to the larger public interest.

Against the backdrop of malpractices by individuals at Godhra and a few centres in Patna, the NTA said it has assessed the performance of all the appeared candidates at the centres concerned to conclude as to whether any tangible impact of the malpractice at the centres has taken place to have widespread ramifications of impactable magnitude.

The agency said that the data analysis of the performance done by it succinctly indicates that the alleged malpractices have not either impacted the sanctity of the entire exam or resulted in any undue benefit to the students appearing at the above-mentioned centres.

“The performance chart of the students at the said centres reveals that the performance of the students at these centres is neither abnormally high nor significantly different from the national average of the performance of the remaining centres at different places in the country”, said the NTA’s affidavit.

It added that the data so prepared also shows that the students from the centre concerned have not scored such marks which would make them eligible or entitle them to admission to the medical colleges of primary importance.

The agency stressed that the entirety of the NEET-UG 2024 exam was carried out fairly and with due confidentiality without any illegal practices, and the claim of "mass malpractice" during the exam is “completely unfounded, misleading, and lacks any basis”.

The NTA said if the entire examination process is cancelled without there being any tangible factors warranting such actions it would be highly detrimental to the larger public interest involving the academic career of lakhs of students, who have attempted the examination fairly without any wrongdoing or even an allegation of wrongdoing.

Both the ministry and the NTA said there was no proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in the examination, as over 23 lakh candidates appeared for the exam at 4,750 centres in 571 cities. Both the Centre and NTA said that the CBI has taken over the cases registered in different states.

The NTA said 63 cases of use of unfair means were reported and a committee submitted its recommendations for appropriate action. It added that the committee after due consideration and examination recommended for the withholding of the results of 33 candidates, debarment of 22 candidates up to three years and declaring the results of nine candidates.

The agency said that examination functionaries of NEET (UG) 2024 have also registered 13 FIRs in cases of unfair means at different examination centres. It stressed that the claim of 'mass malpractice' during the NEET exam is completely unfounded, misleading and lacks any basis.

The NTA contended that the present case is not a case wherein the entire examination process conducted across 4,750 Centres in 571 cities has suffered a systematic failure, as it has not been vitiated by all-pervasive factors of unfair means or paper leak.