New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said the NEET UG 2024 question paper was leaked and there is no doubt that it was disseminated before the exam, and mass leakage requires contacts and a network to connect to all such key contacts in different cities.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said: “The fact that the question paper was leaked in Hazaribagh, there was a leak…the question paper had been disseminated before the exam, that is undoubted. The question we are now wanting to consider is whether it was only confined to these centres, in which case there is no question of a re-test, or whether it was more widespread”.
The bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said the students “have a certain degree of handicap because they would not have the kind of data, which is necessary….”. The bench directed the National Testing Agency to publish on its website the marks obtained by the students in the NEET-UG examination masking the identity of the students, and the result should be declared separately city and centre-wise, by Saturday noon.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the data goes to coaching centres and there are several problems. The bench said it wants to see centre-wise marks pattern and “if data reveals something which has not appeared to the court as judges”.
Paper Leak Done For Money, Not To Bring Disrepute To NEET UG Exam: CJI
During the hearing, the CJI said that the idea of somebody leaking the paper was not to bring disrepute to the NEET UG exam but it would be done for money, and somebody was doing it to make money which is evident now. The CJI said the mass leakage requires contacts and a network to connect to all such key contacts in different cities etc.
Senior advocate Narender Hooda, representing the petitioners, said there was a systemic failure and the transport of the question paper was compromised. He pointed out that the question papers were transported into an e-rickshaw.
Hooda says a packet containing question papers remained with a private company for 6 days, and the principal of Hazaribagh school was arrested in the paper leak. He added that the paper was leaked on May 3 and chat on Telegram shows the paper was sold.
Far-fetched To Say Leaked Paper Was Solved 45 Minutes Before Exam
The CJI observed that as per NTA, the paper was leaked on May 5 morning and students were made to memorize it, which means someone had solved the question paper before May 5 morning in which case the leak was prior to May 4 night. He added that so the question is when did the papers get leaked. Mehta insisted that no leak has taken, rather a breach has taken place and added that there are digital footprints and CBI has investigated and concluded that there is no tampering enroute.
Mehta said there were 180 questions and there were seven question paper solvers and they were given 25 questions each to solve. The CJI wondered if all the 180 questions could have been solved within 45 minutes. "The whole hypothesis that the entire paper was solved in 45 minutes and given to students is too far-fetched," said the CJI. Mehta said that it was probably the reason why none of the students who cheated got qualifying marks in the exam.
The bench noted that the primary breach happened in Hazaribagh and the question paper solving happened in Hazaribagh and they were sent to Patna. “All happened in 45 minutes?" CJI wondered. Mehta said students got 2 hours to memorize the answers.
CJI asked Mehta, have the problem solvers been arrested by the CBI? Mehta said three have been arrested. “We are worried how much was the period between the breach of the paper and the main exam”, said the CJI.
HC Order For 1 student, Why NTA Allowed 15,000 Fresh Registrations
The CJI told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, and Naresh Kaushik, representing NTA, the Rajasthan High Court order was only for one student, why did NTA allow 15,000 as fresh registration?
Mehta said the government received several representations, so we thought, as a student friendly measure the window can be opened for two days for new registration on April 9 and April 10. Mehta said out of this new 15,094 students, those who will get admission in one lakh eight thousand is only 44. NTA counsel said that out of the new registrations, about 12,000 students are failing.
Hooda said the IIT report has conflict and insertion of candidates who used unfair means cannot be detected with analytics of such a large data. He stressed that the IIT Madras report does not establish that there is no leak or malpractice and added that there is a systemic failure.
Hooda said the original NEET question paper was circulated on Telegram channel. The NTA counsel disputed this contention saying that a fake paper was being circulated. Hooda said the paper was leaked on May 3. The apex court was informed that the exam generates Rs 400 crore and Rs 300 crore is spent. At this juncture, CJI asked Mehta why engage a private courier company.
Mehta explained to the court that the CBI probed the entire chain, including printers, centres, GPS tracking, and digital lockers, and there is a 7-layer safety system and there are two printing presses, which distribute papers to various cities.
Paper Leak Replicated In Any Other City?
The CJI asked the petitioners’ counsel if there is material to indicate that the Patna model of paper leak was replicated outside Patna. Hooda cited irregularities in the NEET UG exam in Godhra and people from various states went to Godhra to appear in the exam. Mehta assured the court that nobody is getting admissions from Godhra. The bench said the Godhra incident has nothing to do with the paper leak, as it never went through, as they were arrested and it was a localized incident. Hooda says leaked answers to the question paper reached Godhra.
CJI says Godhra is not an incident of widespread paper leak and the problem is only with Hazaribagh. “Can we cancel the entire examination?”, CJI asks the petitioners' counsel. Hooda says the conspiracy for the paper leak was hatched one month before the exam.
The apex court was hearing a batch of petitions seeking a direction to cancel the NEET-UG 2024 exam against the backdrop of allegations of paper leak and malpractices. “The material collected by the Bihar Police through the investigation and the report of the Economic Offences Wing of Bihar Police, before the investigation was taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation, shall be filed with the Court Master by 5.00 p.m. on 20 July 2024”, said the bench, scheduling the matter for further hearing on Monday.
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