Supreme Court issues notice to NTA over NEET-UG 2024 exam

Noticing a compromise in the integrity of NEET-UG, 2024, the Supreme Court (SC) has sought inputs from the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) regarding a plea for a new exam due to alleged question paper leak and misconduct. The court, however, declined to halt the counselling of successful candidates for MBBS, BDS, and related courses.

NEET-UG, overseen by NTA, assesses eligibility for MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and similar programmes across public and private institutions nationwide. The court directed the NTA to respond while refusing a request to pause student counselling. In response to a petition seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 due to the alleged leaks, the top court emphasised that the sanctity of the exam has been compromised, expressing the need for clarification and withholding any interference with the ongoing counselling process.

A temporary panel consisting of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah has taken note of a petition requesting the annulment of the May examination and an inquiry into the alleged paper leak. The court has scheduled a review of this issue for July 8 and has asked for a response from the National Testing Agency (NTA).

"We will not stop the counselling. If you argue further, we will dismiss this," the Court remarked.

On the SC's hearing on NEET-UG 2024 exam, Alakh Pandey, CEO, of Physics Wallah, says, “There was a hearing of the case, particularly listed before the results. Here, the students were demanding justification solely on the grounds of the paper leak, not regarding grace marks or anything else, because it was listed on June 1st before the results. Our PIL will be listed tomorrow. It concerns both the paper leak and the grace marks, as well as the transparency of NTA and everything else. For today's listing, the Supreme Court stated that the sanctity of the exam is compromised, which means they also acknowledge that there have been some issues in the examination, and asked NTA to respond before July 8, but they have not granted any relief regarding the counselling.”

The candidates have claimed that there were inconsistencies in how compensatory marks were given to students for time lost.

On May 17, a panel consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra decided not to halt the release of NEET-UG 2024 results.