NEET-UG Plea in Supreme Court LIVE| 'Retest Possible If Leak Was Wide,' Next Hearing on Thursday

On the Supreme Court's hearing on the NEET-UG 2024 exam, Senior Advocate Narender Hooda says, "The petitioner's argument for cancellation of examination and holding a fresh exam have been recorded in the order...NTA, CBI and Union Government have been asked to file affidavits indicating whether tainted can be separated from untainted. CBI has been specifically asked to file a status report..."

CJI ordered the SG to take instructions from the government if we can run this through the data analytics program in the cyber forensics department to find out the beneficiaries. We have to identify if the whole exam is affected and if it is possible to identify the wrong doers. In that case, a retest can be ordered for those students only.

The bench gave a day's time for all petitioners' lawyers asking for a re-test, to give us one set of submissions on Wednesday. We want you all to sit down and give us one consolidated set of submissions not exceeding 10 pages. The court also asked CBI to file a status report of all FIRs in this case. 
 

Solicitor General: The results of such students who have been identified, have been withheld. The show cause notices have been issued as well.

CJI:  Results of how many students have been withheld owing to paper leak? Where are they from? Are we still in the process of identifying students who were beneficiaries? If so, we will have to cancel the exam. Cancellation of  the exam of 24 lakh students is a huge matter. Let us not be in self-denial mode about what happened.

"Assuming that we are not going to cancel the exam, what are we doing today to identify the beneficiaries of the fraud? What have the govt done so far to identify the beneficiaries? 

Talking about the fact that this year there are 67 students who get 720, CJI asked,  “What is the percentile distribution across the category? Is the distribution of marks skewed at the top? That will give us an indication whether the exam pattern was comparatively easier compared to last year.”
 

Chief Justice of India asked what actions have been taken against the accused by the Centre. He also asked the medium of the paper leak. “It is a matter of the future of 23 lakh candidates. We need to know how did the leak happen,” he said.

“You know why we are asking this if we come to the conclusion that the time lag between leak and the exam was not wide then it militate against the re examination and if the time gap is wide then it shows the leak was widespread. if the sanctity is affected then retest has to happen and if the grain cannot be separated from the shaft then also re test has to be ordered. But it has to noted that re exam was 24 lakh students is difficult.. IF WE SEE THAT THE LEAK WAS ON SOCIAL MEDIA THEN IT IS EXTREMELY WIDESPREAD.. if it is through telegram whatsapp then it spread like wildfire.. and we also have to see the balance with the time of leak like if it was May 5 morning before students went for exam,” said CJI, DY Chandrachud. 

“If students were asked to memorize on the morning of the exam, leak might not have been so widespread. If we can't identify candidates who are guilty of wrongdoing, retest has to be ordered. Another important aspect is modality in which the leak took place. If modality is through social media, it is a possibility that leak is wide,” said CJI.

 

“In what custody were the papers reserved? When did NTA send the papers to the banks in the cities? We want to know which is the printing press and what were the transportation arrangements. After they are printed, how does the printing press send them back to NTA? And how many days elapse in this process? If we come to the conclusion that the time lag between the leak and actual exam is limited, it would militate against re-test,” CJI asked.

 

CJI: According to you, the credibility of the exam is questioned and it is impossible to track the beneficiaries of paper leak. On what basis are you stating this?

Counsel 1: Bihar police, which registered first FIR, found there was a paper leak. They found standard SOPs laid down for transfer of question paper were not fully complied with...they have found question paper was received by gang on mobile phone  On 5th May morning...students were made to memorize the answers to these questions. We have a video...on 4th of May question paper was being circulated on social media.

CJI: When were question papers sent to locker?

CJI: Two lockers, when were the papers pulled out? What time was the exam? 

Adv Naresh Kaushik representing NTA: On 5 May, around 10:30-11 o clock

CJI: How were the papers distributed abroad? When were they sent abroad? 

Kaushik: Through embassies 

CJI: How were they sent to embassies? Diplomatic bag or courier? 

Kaushik: We will find out.

CJI: So, should we believe that NEET paper was leaked? 

Advocate: Several arrests have been made. CBI and police have arrested a group of accused persons. The question papers were circulated on social media and Telegram. We have videos. Papers were printed on May 5 via a wi-fi printer in a school. Investigation is going on about the leakage of question papers from the locker boxes. 

Advocate of petitioners said that Bihar Police has said that the NTA did not follow the SOPs properly and there were lapses on the part of the system. The NTA is to be blamed for the widespread irregularities.

Advocate: This court had earlier said that any candidate who uses unfair means will not get admission to MBBS. In this case, it is impossible to track all the beneficiaries of the paper leak and irregularities in the exam is not clear. Hence, the exam should be cancelled. 

Advocate: Various matters of NEET paper leaks have come to light and Patna Police has filed FIRs and made arrests. It is shocking that 67 candidates got 100% marks in NEET-UG.

CJI: Out of the 67, how many candidates got grace marks? 

Advocate: Six of them were given grace marks. 

CJI: Do you have any proof of a paper leak to support your demand for re-exam? 

The bench led by Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud is hearing the petitions related to re-exam demands. CJI asked when the NEET notification was issued.  The advocate said that the NTA released the NEET-UG notification on February 9. 

SC has resumed the hearing of NEET-related pleas. 

The bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud will resume the hearing of NEET related pleas shortly. The hearing is adjourned till lunch.

The Chief Justice of India said that they will first hear who are asking for a retest because they are challenging the entirety of the test, they say entire test stands vitiated. After hearing them, we will hear the NTA and the Government. The matter will be heard after 2 pm. 

The hearing of NEET related pleas has begun. A counsel mentioned the plea filed by Gujarat students opposing re-exam. CJI said, “We can't hear all cousels, we will hear broadly representatives.”

The bench is currently hearing the item listed on the 20th number. The NEET matter is listed as item number 31. The hearing will begin shortly. 

The National Testing Agency (NTA), in its affidavit said that cancelling NEET will be a betrayal to the promising candidates who really worked hard for the exam. The agency also said that the claims of widespread malpractice are "completely unfounded, misleading, and lacking any basis." 

“Canceling the examination would be hugely counterproductive and significantly harmful to the candidates who had successfully qualified,” NTA said. 

As the hearing on NEET pleas is set to begin shortly, it is yet to be decided if the top court will direct NTA to cancel the NEET-UG result that was declared on June 4 and conduct a re-exam for all. 

Counsel mentions a petition filed by 56 students from Gujarat opposing the pleas to conduct a re-exam for all. The Chief Justice DY Chandrachud asked the counsel to mention the matter when the other NEET matters are taken up.

As the Supreme Court convened today, a counsel mentioned a petition filed by 56 students from Gujarat opposing the pleas to re-conduct the NEET UG exam. However, the CJI asked the counsel to mention the matter when the other NEET-UG matters are taken up.

Saying that the paper leak issue is a “betrayal of a lifetime dream” for many, Congress leader Rahul Gandhisaid, “Today, these students and their families are looking up to us, their public representatives, to take bold and decisive steps to resolve the issue.”

“Our students deserve answers,” the Congress MP said, adding that a “parliamentary debate is the first step towards rebuilding and restoring their faith”.

Allegations of irregularities, including paper leaks, have led to protests in several cities and sparring between rival political parties.

The Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET-UG, recently told the apex court 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.

Last week, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Aman Singh, one of the main accused from Dhanbad for his alleged role in a matter related to irregularities in NEET UG examination. According to CBI sources, Aman Singh is a very important link in the paper leak case and is connected to the syndicate of Bihar-Jharkhand.

Several arrests have been made in Bihar and Godhra, Gujarat in connection with NEET paper leak issue. The accused have confirmed that the paper was leaked and the questions matched the actual question papers. The matter has been handed over to CBI and the probe is going on.

The top court will hear a total of 38 petitions related to the exam in today's hearing. The NEET UG fiasco has been a contentious issue, with multiple allegations of irregularities and malpractices in the examination process. Earlier, the Supreme Court had refused to halt the ongoing NEET counselling sessions but had demanded a response from the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the central government.

The hearing will be led by a three-judge bench including Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. Read more.