New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to publish on its website the marks obtained by all students in the NEET-UG 2024, city-wise and centre-wise, masking the identity of the respective students.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said the NTA should complete the exercise by Saturday. The bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, passed the order on a batch of petitions seeking a direction to cancel the NEET-UG 2024 exam against the backdrop of allegations of paper leak and malpractices.
While adjourning the hearing till Monday, the bench said the petitioners have submitted that it would be appropriate if the result of the NEET-UG 24 exam is published on the website to bring about some transparency on the centre-wise marks obtained by candidates.
“We direct the NTA to publish the marks obtained by students in the NEET-UG 24 exam while at the same time ensuring that the identity of the students is masked. The results should be declared in relation to each centre and city separately”, said the bench.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the direction to publish centre-wise results. However, the CJI said that there has been an admitted fact that the paper leaked in Hazaribagh centre. The bench noted that to examine whether the question paper leak was confined to those centres or it had spread across to other cities and centres, it is essential to dissect the complete data of results.
The apex court expressed concern over the time between the breach of the question paper and the examination and stressed that if the breach period is three days, the danger is significantly higher. "Does somebody pay Rs 75,000 for 45 minutes?" asks the CJI.
The CJI asked senior advocate Narender Hooda, representing the petitioners, about the widespread and systemic leak. Hooda claimed the exam's failure is multi-dimensional, citing compromised transportation of question papers as they were with a private courier for six days, and stressed that the question papers were transported via e-rickshaw in Hazaribagh. Hooda showed photos and evidence of papers circulating on Telegram on May 4, and the principal involved was arrested by the CBI.
Mehta said that a gang member in Hazaribagh sent the paper via WhatsApp and the gang wanted to avoid widespread leaks and also not allow students to take photographs. Mehta said the gang’s strategy was to prevent the exam from being cancelled due to a widespread leak.
The CJI asked if students got the papers after 10 am, was it possible for solvers, from 9:30 to 10:15 AM, to solve the question paper in 45 minutes and send it to students. 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 in various cities.
The CJI said 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 before May 4 night. He added that the question is when did the papers get leaked. Mehta said there are digital footprints and CBI has investigated and concluded that there is no tampering en route.
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