On Tuesday, July 23, the Supreme Court of India dismissed petitions demanding for the cancellation and re-testing of NEET-UG 2024 amid continuous controversy. The Supreme Court refused to cancel the NEET-UG 2024 exam, citing a lack of evidence proving a systematic leak of question papers and other malpractices.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra heard arguments from a variety of lawyers for about four days, including Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA), and senior advocates Narender Hooda, Sanjay Hegde, and Mathews Nedumapra, who represented the petitioners.
"We are of the view that ordering Re-neet or cancellation of the entire NEET-UG 2024 Exam is not justified on the application of the settled tests propounded by decisions of this court on the basis of the material on record," the justices said.
The Court further observed that conducting a re-examination will have major ramifications for nearly 23 lakh students, including disruption of the academic timetable and a cascade effect in the coming years.While acknowledging that there was a paper leak in the centers in Hazaribagh (Jharkhand) and Patna (Bihar), the Court stated that there is insufficient evidence on the record to conclude that the exam results are invalid in their entirety or that there was a systemic breach in the exam's sanctity.
An expert panel from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi advised the Supreme Court that the fourth choice was the correct response to a disputed physics question on the NEET-UG 2024 exam. This explanation was predicted to have an impact on the scores of almost four lakh participants, including 44 pupils who received flawless scores in the exam.
As a result, the Court directed that option 4 be treated as the right answer, and the NTA was instructed to re-tally the results appropriately.The SC bench further stated that ordering the cancellation of the entire exam was 'not warranted' based on the court's established norms and the evidence on record.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) administered by the NTA caused a huge political debate, resulting in student protests. Allegations of rampant fraud, including question paper leaks and impersonation, plagued the May 5 exam. At least 23.33 lakh students took the NEET-UG 2024 exam at 4,750 centers in 571 cities, including 14 abroad sites.
