The Supreme Court, today, issued notice in writ petitions filed by students who appeared for the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test-Under Graduate Exam, 2024 (NEET-UG, 2024) and sought relief against the incidents of alleged paper leaks and malpractices.

The Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice SVN Bhatti issued notices in the petitions and directed the National Testing Agency ('NTA') to file its counter affidavit within two weeks. Both matters were tagged with other pending petitions and listed on July 8, 2024.

The Court has passed similar orders in petitions filed by Alakh Pandey alias Physics Wallah and by Abdullah Faiz challenging the NEET-UG 2024 exam's alleged paper leak, and also petitions seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation ('CBI') in the matter.

On the request of the counsel for the Petitioners seeking assistance from the Court in the matter, Justice Vikram Nath said, "We are not delving any further, we are fixing all the matters to 8th...you argue everything on 8th."

Justice SVN Bhatti remarked, "Even if there is 0.001% negligence on the part of anyone, it should be thoroughly dealt with. In all these matters they are ought not to treat this as an adversarial litigation...imagine a person who has played fraud on the system and becomes a doctor. He is more deleterious to the society..."

Advocate Kanu Agarwal appeared for the Union of India and said, "I would only request Milords to not come to the conclusion before we file a counter."

Justice SVN Bhatti further said, "We all know the labour children undergo preparing for these exams."

Advocate Kanu Agarwal said, "Certainly, even we all were discussing the same."

Justice Bhatti then remarked, "Your stance ought not to change the moment you enter the Court. Representing an agency, which is responsible for conducting the examination, must act fair. If there is a mistake, say 'yes' there is a mistake... at least inspire confidence in your performance. If someone keeps just a table in front of him to find out the performance of most of the candidates, one can easily understand where it has gone wrong. How many cell phones were used? What are the places from where the alleged papers have come?"

The Bench also said to the UOI and the NTA to take timely action in the matter. The Counsel for the Petitioners further requested the Court for any interim relief in the matter. The Court said, "Either zero or hundred, once you make out hundred, howsoever they(NTA) try to convince us it is not going to stand."

On June 14, 2024, The Court had also issued notice in the petition filed by the NTA seeking a transfer of pending petitions before various High Courts alleging the malpractices in NEET-UG. The Court tagged the matter and listed it on July 8, 2024. Other transfer petitions filed by NTA were withdrawn as they were related to the grant of compensatory marks, which has already been decided by the Court on June 13, 2024.

The Court, on June 13, 2024, had allowed the recommendations by the UOI and NTA, to conduct a re-examination for the 1563 candidates who were given compensatory marks in the NEET-UG, 2024. The re-examination is likely to be held on June 25, 2024. A petition was filed by Jaripiti Kartheek under Article 32 of the Constitution raising a grievance regarding the grant of compensatory marks to 1563 candidates using a normalization formula where, at the examination centres, the candidates were given less than three hours twenty minutes to complete their exam.

The Supreme Court, on June 11, 2024, had also issued notice in the petition seeking cancellation of the NEET-UG, 2024 after the alleged paper leak and irregular results.

Previously, in May 2024, the Supreme Court had issued notice in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) raising the alarming issue of the leakage of the NEET UG 2024 exam paper and the ensuing maladministration in states like Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, etc. The PIL had asserted that these incidents have unfairly disadvantaged deserving candidates, infringing upon their fundamental right to equality and equal opportunities enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. This Petition is now listed on July 8, 2024.

Recently, the Calcutta High Court had also initiated action on a PIL alleging irregularities in the NEET (UG) 2024 examination. The petitioner raised concerns regarding the scoring system and argued that it would be improbable for candidates to achieve scores of 718 or 719 as per the established marking criteria.

Accordingly, all the matters are now listed on July 8, 2024.

Cause Titles: Amulya Vijaya Pinapati v. Union Of India (W.P.(C) No. 379/2024) and Nitin Vijay Vs National Testing Agency (W.P.(C) No. 373/2024)

Justice Vikram NathJustice SVN BhattiNEET

Aastha Kaushik