The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the counselling for admissions of students to the medical colleges over alleged paper leak and irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) undergraduate (UG) examination 2024.
The apex court has also issued notice to the Centre and NTA and listed the matter for consideration on July 8, after the summer vacation which commenced on May 20 comes to an end.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said the "sanctity has been affected" and "we need answers". However, the court refused to stay the counselling process for admission of those who have cleared the exam.
"Let the counselling start. We are not stopping the counselling," said Justice Nath as Senior Advocate Mathews J Nedumpara urged the court to stay the counselling.
Besides the Centre and the NTA, which conducts NEET-UG, the bench also issued notices to the Bihar Government. There were allegations of malpractice in holding the exam in the State."How much time do you want...Immediately on the re-opening? Otherwise, the counselling will start," the bench said.
It tagged the plea filed by Shivangi Mishra and nine other MBBS aspirants with a pending petition and asked the NTA to file the response in the meantime.
NEET-UG, 2024, was held on May 5 and results were declared on June 4. It was expected to be declared on June 14.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) examination is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
It took note of the submission that the fresh plea be tagged with a similar petition filed earlier on which a bench headed by CJI DY Chanrdarchud had issued notices to the Centre and the NTA on May 17 and that the plea was already listed on July 8. The court granted the prayer.
"The allegation is that exam papers were leaked, and a large number of students got the exam papers in advance, and they became successful. Twenty three lakh students wrote the examination, and the total number of seats available is 1 lakh. This is the most coveted examination. Sixty-seven students got 720 out of 720 marks.
Mishra and nine other MBBS candidates sought a direction to the NTA "to recall the results of the examination conducted on May 5 and to conduct the examination afresh after issuing due public notice upon revelation at the end of investigation through a report that large number of examinees are bound to be affected by the declaration of results depriving those qualified examinees of just and fair opportunity to compete in seeking admission in college of their choice".
The plea has also sought a direction to the Centre and the NTA to take effective and meaningful steps to ensure that "malpractices and fraud", in particular leaking of the question papers as has happened in the previous examination, does not happen again.
It said petitioners are young aspiring students hailing from different states and are "shaken at the core" due to the question paper leak. The petitioners are under tremendous stress and anxiety as the alleged paper leak has denied them a level playing field, it said.
"Four individuals, including two MBBS students, have been arrested for allegedly running a paper solver gang for NEET exams at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Mehta Vidyalaya in New Delhi," the petition said. "Hence, in the backdrop of ...Peculiar facts and circumstances, the Petitioners seek kind indulgence of this court urgently in the interest of justice, equity and good conscience," it said.
The plea alleged that NEET-UG, 2024, was riddled with malpractices and various instances of paper leaks have come to the knowledge of the petitioners.
