Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam has side-stepped the demand to investigate into the alleged leak of the NEET judgment but maintained that the issue required an enquiry.
“I came to know from media (about the alleged leak). Nobody will accept this, nobody should encourage this. We are following very strict procedure, I don’t know how it has come about, we have to enquire,” Justice Sathasivam told reporters at a function organised to felicitate him on Sunday.
Amid demands by certain quarters to seek review of the NEET verdict, the willingness of the CJI to enquire is sure to boost such a move. Students who gave the test and feel left out have planned to file a review petition, expected to be taken up by same or similar Bench which had passed the order.
Asked whether he would order an investigation to ascertain the truth behind the news reports, Justice Sathasivam flatly denied. “No, so far it has not come to my knowledge, only through media I’m having this,” CJI added.
The apex court in a majority 2:1 ruling on July 18 had quashed National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), meant to be a single window test for getting admitted into MBBS, BDS and post-graduate courses in State-run, Government, private, and aided colleges.
Earlier, former CJI Altamas Kabir, who authored the majority verdict, denied reports of the alleged leak of the judgment. “As far as I know this is entirely a secret. It was kept in my chamber. I would not be able to answer this,” Kabir said on the day he retired.
Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad too made it clear on the day the judgment arrived that legal recourse was the option the Centre would consider as certain portion of the judgment had long-term implications.