SC to hear on Monday pleas seeking cancellation of NEET-UG exam

NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a batch of pleas alleging irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG 2024 examination and seeking its cancellation.

As per the cause list published on the website of the apex court, a bench presided over by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud will resume hearing the matter on July 22.

In the previous hearing, the Bench, also comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, had sought a copy of the report of Bihar Police and its Economic Offences Unit (EOU) in relation to the NEET question paper leak case.

Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, the second-highest law officer of the Centre, undertook that he will place on record the copy of the report filed by Patna Police as well as the report filed by EOU of Bihar Police.

The NEET question paper leak case was cracked by Patna Police on May 5, the day of the examination and an FIR was registered at the city’s Shastri Nagar Police Station.

The case was later transferred to the EOU of Bihar Police for investigation.

On June 23, the Centre decided to transfer the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Posting the hearing for July 22, the apex court asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to release on its website centre-wise results after redacting personal information, including the roll number of the candidates.

During the hearing, the SC had asked the petitioners to illustrate that the leak was so systematic that the exam must be cancelled in entirety and conducted afresh.

It reiterated that if tainted cases cannot be segregated from untainted ones, the entire examination has to go.

Earlier, the top court had directed the NTA to make full disclosure regarding the nature of the paper leak, the places where leaks took place, and lag of time between the occurrence of the leak and the conduct of the examination.

It also asked the CBI to file a status report indicating the status of the investigation and the material collected during the course of the probe.