New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said it was an admitted fact that the question paper in NEET-UG 2024 Examination was leaked, while asserting that it was important to find out whether the leak was so extensive that it merits re-examination.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said the court is dealing with the lives and careers of 23 lakh students and “cancellation of NEET-UG will be last resort”. It said that ordering a re-test without understanding how many students had cheated would affect the lakhs who did not.
The bench commenced hearing more than 30 pleas related to the controversy-ridden medical entrance exam, including those alleging irregularities and malpractices in the May 5 test and seeking a direction to conduct it afresh. It is also hearing a separate plea of over 50 successful Gujarat-based NEET-UG candidates, seeking a direction to restrain the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) from cancelling the exam.
"The fact that the sanctity of the exam has been compromised is beyond doubt...it is an admitted fact that there is a leak, and the nature of the leak is something that the court needs to examine. What steps did the NTA and central government take to identify the reasons for the leak," the CJI asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.
"What is the nature of the paper leak?...The court is dealing with the lives and careers of 23 lakh students, therefore it is important to find out whether the leakage of question paper was so extensive as to order re-examination," the CJI added.
The Chief Justice stressed that the authorities have to be "ruthless" with the wrongdoers and those who benefited from the paper leak, while seeking details of the action taken by the government.
"What has the government done so far to identify the beneficiaries of the paper leak? And what is it doing to ensure that this paper leak does not happen in the future," the CJI posed the questions to the centre.
He also shot a volley of questions to the NTA regarding the question papers including when were they framed, when and where were they printed and how were they transported and stored prior to the examination date.
Key questions asked and observations made by CJI
- How come 67 students’ got full marks in the exam this year? A substantial jump from previous years.
- Need to find what is the extent of the paper leak.
- Bring some sense of confidence in the process and let us not be in a sense of self-denial.
- What is the nature of question paper leak?
- Where did the paper leak take place?
- What was the time lag between the paper leak and the timing of the exam?
- NTA should disclose what steps did it take to identify the beneficiaries of the paper leak.
- NTA should identify centres and cities where paper leak occurred and what is the number of students’ identified so far.
- When were the set of questions for the exam framed by the panel for the examination?
- When were these question papers printed?
- When were these question papers transported and how were they stored prior to exams.
Circumstances under which a re-test can be considered
- If the court comes to the conclusion that the time lag between the leak and actual exam is limited, it would militate against re-test.
- If students were asked to memorize the answers to the question paper on the morning of the exam, leak might not have been so widespread.
- If the time lag between the paper leak and the examination was too long then there needs to be a re-test
- If it is not possible to identify candidates who are guilty of wrongdoing, then a retest has to be ordered.
- If it is found that tainted and untainted cannot be segregated then a re-test has to be ordered, which allows to separate grain from the chaff.
The CJI also asked Mehta if they can have data analytics done by cyber forensics team to find the suspicious markers and whether it was possible to identify the wrong doers or the beneficiaries of the same?
The apex court asked the CBI to file a status report on the probe into the paper leak FIRs by Wednesday and scheduled the matter for further hearing on Thursday (July 11). The court also asked the government and the NTA to answer all queries raised by it during the hearing and based on their response a decision on re-test would be taken.
Senior advocate Narender Hooda, representing a petitioner, argued that Bihar police say that NTA has not followed standard SOPs and fault is at systemic level, and it is at a large scale.
The counsel added that the NTA says as of now "we can't say whether fault is at systemic level or not, and what is the sweep of the entire fraud". Hooda argued that the "whole credibility of examination is lost and identification of tainted and untainted cannot be done now".
He said that NTA cannot say whether fault at systemic level, whether it is a fault in two or three states or whether it has gone to the entire country and pointed at FIRs registered in Delhi, Patna, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. He added that Bihar police claims that the question paper circulated on mobile phone and also groups of candidates memorised the question paper, and question paper and answers were circulated on Telegram channel.
Earlier, the lawyers representing a petitioner started the submissions, saying that they were seeking the cancellation of the exam on grounds such as paper leak, OMR sheet manipulation, impersonation and cheating.
The Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET-UG, recently told the apex court through their affidavits that scrapping the exam would be "counterproductive" and "seriously jeopardise" lakhs of honest candidates in the absence of any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality.
The NTA and the Union education ministry have been at the centre of media debates and protests by students and political parties over alleged large-scale malpractices ranging from question paper leaks to impersonation in the test held on May 5.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country. Allegations of irregularities, including paper leaks, have led to protests in several cities and sparring between rival political parties. The Centre and the NTA on June 13 told the court that they had cancelled the grace marks awarded to 1,563 candidates.
They were given the option to either take a re-test or forgo the compensatory marks awarded for loss of time. The NTA announced the revised rank list on July 1 after issuing the results of the re-test held on June 23. A total of 67 students had scored a perfect 720, unprecedented in the NTA's history, with six from a Haryana centre figuring in the list, raising suspicions about irregularities in the examination. It has been alleged that grace marks contributed to the 67 students sharing the top rank.
The number of candidates sharing the top rank in the NEET-UG was reduced to 61 from 67 as the NTA announced the revised results on July 1.
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