Supreme Court to track NEET reforms
The Supreme Court on Friday told the Union Government that it will closely monitor the steps taken to curb NEET examination paper leaks, while underlining that ad hocism has caused trouble for years.
A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe, which was hearing a batch of petitions, including one by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the Government should indicate the steps taken towards transparency, implementation of recommendations of the Radhakrishnan committee and how the IIT model would be followed.
The seven-member Radhakrishnan committee was set up by the Ministry of Education in the wake of the NEET-UG paper leak to make recommendations on reforms in the examination process, improvement in data security protocols and the structure and functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA).
SG Mehta said there are some developments and the Government will file a detailed report on an overhaul of the examination process, which may be beyond the recommendations of the Radhakrishnan committee.
“Students’ futures can’t be jeopardised. We are going beyond the Radhakrishnan Committee. I assure you that the Government is walking 10 extra miles. I can assure you everything is being supervised at the highest level,” the SG informed the SC.
The bench highlighted the Government use of the Indian Air Force to transport question papers for the NEET-UG retest and said the all these measures are ad hoc.
Posting the matter to August 3, the court said it will monitor everything closely and follow it up throughout the year.
“We will see that complete and total institutionalisation takes place,” the bench said.
On May 29, the SC stressed that the real problem relating to NEET-UG would not stop until “actual accountability arises”.
SG Mehta had submitted that the Government was seriously concerned about the youths and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was personally supervising the situation so that “there is no lacunae”.
On May 12, the NTA cancelled NEET-UG held on May 3, amid allegations of paper leak. The retest was held on June 21. The paper leak allegations are under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
