NEET Supreme Court Hearing: SC Posts NEET-UG Matter To July 18

A Supreme Court bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was set to hear a batch of pleas related to the re-test of the NEET UG 2024 examination as well as the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance test. The matter was listed as item no. 43 before the bench.

However, when the matter camp up a while past noon, CJI Chandrachud said that the matter would be taken up on Friday, which later after some discussions was posted for July 18.

The top court will now hear the pleas in the NEET UG matter next Thursday, July 18.

The NEET Exam, also known as the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, was conducted by the National Testing Agency on May 5, 2024. A total of 24 lakh students appeared for the undergraduate medical entrance exam.

A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud is set to hear a batch of pleas regarding the re-test of the NEET UG 2024 examination as well as the alleged malpractice and irregularities in the national level medical entrance test conducted by the National Testing Agency on May 5.

In the hearing that took place on July 8, the Supreme Court said that it needs more facts before it passes an order over the re-examination of the NEET UG test for the medical aspirants. It had asked both the CBI and the NTA to submit their reports by 5 pm on Wednesday, scheduling the next hearing for today, July 11.

READ IN DETAIL: What SC Said About NEET UG Re-Test

The National Testing Agency on Wednesday filed a separate additional affidavit in the Supreme Court, saying that it has carried out an analysis of distribution of marks in NEET UG 2024 at the national, state, city and centre level.

"This analysis indicates that the distribution of marks is quite normal and there seems to be no extraneous factor, which would influence the distribution of marks," the NTA said in its affidavit, which also gave details about the system in place for ensuring confidential printing of question papers, its transportation and distribution.

The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that there was neither any indication of "mass malpractice" nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores in NEET UG 2024.

It said that as per the data analytics of the exam's results which was conducted by IIT Madras and as per the findings provided by the experts, the marks distribution follows the bell-shaped curve that is witnesses in any large-scale examination indicating no abnormality.

The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that for 2024-25, the counselling process for the undergraduate seats will be conducted in four rounds, starting from the third week of July.

NTA conducted a re-exam for the NEET UG 2024 exam after it told the Supreme Court it will be cancelling the result of 1,563 students who received grace marks. Around 800 students appeared for the re-exam held on June 23. The result for the same was declared on late June 30

Amid the ongoing row over paper leak allegations in the NEET UG and UGC NET examinations -- both of which are conducted by the NTA -- other exams such as the NEET PG 2024 and CSIR NET were postponed.

The NEET PG exam was postponed just 12 hours before the day of the examination. However, NBE later released the new date of the NEET PG exam, which will now be conducted on August 11.

Here's a recap of the controversy surrounding the NEET UG 2024:

• The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2024, conducted on May 5 by the National Testing Agency, was engulfed in controversy following the announcement of its results on June 4.

• As many as 67 students had scored the perfect score, which is 720, raising serious concerns among medical aspirants, parents and other concerned parties in the matter.

• The NTA later announced that it had awarded grace marks to students who suffered loss of time at their examination centres. However, aspirants staged a protest asking NTA to justify how awarding grace marks was equivalent to loss of time, adding that time should have been compensated with extra time.

• On June 11, when the Supreme Court heard petitions on NEET re-test, it held that the sanctity of the medical entrance test had been compromised and called on the Centre and NTA to respond to the same.

• Then, amid heavy backlash over the issue, the Centre and NTA told the apex court that it will cancel the grace marks that were awarded to 1,563 students and offer them the option to appear for a re-test.

• The Ministry of Education handed over the probe into the alleged irregularities and paper leak in the NEET UG 2024 examination to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

• The federal agency, acting promptly, made its first two arrests soon after taking over the investigation. It first arrested two persons in Patna, then the principal and vice principal of the Oasis School in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh.

• The CBI then arrested "kingpin" Aman Singh from Jharkhand's Hazaribagh. His arrest was based on intelligence about a Jharkhand-based module's alleged involvement in the paper leak.

• In its most recent arrest on July 9, the probe agency nabbed two more persons, including a candidate, from Patna. Notably, this was the first that the CBI arrested a candidate in connection with the alleged discrepancies in the NEET UG 2024 examination.

Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court there was neither any indication of "mass malpractice" nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores in NEET-UG 2024.

It said the data analytics of results of NEET-UG 2024 was conducted by IIT Madras and as per the findings given by the experts, the marks distribution follows the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any large-scale examination indicating no abnormality.

National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the prestigious test, in an affidavit in the top court said it has carried out an analysis of distribution of marks in NEET-UG 2024 at the national, state, city and centre level, adding that the analysis indicates that the distribution of marks is "quite normal".

"This analysis indicates that the distribution of marks is quite normal and there seems to be no extraneous factor, which would influence the distribution of marks," the NTA said in its affidavit, which also gave details about the system in place for ensuring confidential printing of question papers, its transportation and distribution.

During the hearing on July 8, the Supreme Court said if sanctity of the exam is lost, then re-test has to be ordered, adding that cancellation of the exam is "extreme last resort".

The top court heard more than 30 pleas related to the controversy-ridden medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2024, including those alleging irregularities and malpractices in the May 5 test and seeking a direction to conduct it afresh.

"No question that paper has been leaked, we are determining the extent of leak... Are we still in the process of identifying students who were beneficiaries? If we are [...], we will have to cancel the exam. Cancellation of exam of 24 lakh students is a matter of extreme last resort," the Supreme Court said.

Amid the recent row over irregularities in exams, the CBI is likely to file a chargesheet against a youth who allegedly circulated a 'doctored' screenshot of the UGC-NET paper on Telegram, which led to the cancellation of the exam after an alert from the Union Home Ministry about a possible 'breach'.

The NEET UG-related cases are listed as item number 43 before the Supreme Court-bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

The bench is scheduled to commence sitting at 10:30 am.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear nearly 40 petitions today regarding the irregularities and re-exam of the NEET UG 2024. Amid these please, the Centre and National Testing Agency have filed affidavits opposing the demand to cancel the exam.

As per Centre, the instances of alleged malpractices are "isolated" and "do not warrant the scrapping of the entire exam jeopardising the future of lakhs of honest students".

The NEET Re-test was conducted by the National Testing Agency on June 23. The re-examination came after the central testing agency cancelled the results of 1,563 students who received grace marks.

Of the 1500 students, around 800 appeared for the NEET UG re-exam. The results for the same were declared by NTA on June 30.

The students who appeared for the re-exam received fresh results. The students who chose not to appear for the re-exam will go for the counselling process with their June 4 results, but their grace marks will be omitted.

The Supreme Court bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra has convened.

The top court bench is currently hearing other items, as it will move up the ladder, the hearing for the NEET UG issue -- which is item number 43 -- will begin.

The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that for 2024-25, the counselling process for the undergraduate seats will be conducted in four rounds, starting from the third week of July.

The Supreme Court will be hearing item no. 43, the NEET UG issue soon. The bench is currently at item no. 36.

As the NEET pleas came up, CJI DY Chandrachud said that the bench will take up the NEET matter first thing on Friday.

However, he later said that the matters will be heard on Monday.

Though CJI said the matter will be taken up on Monday, the SG cited personal difficulties for Monday and Tuesday and requested the hearing for Wednesday instead.

The Supreme Court has posted the NEET UG matter to next Thursday, July 18.

The apex court granted the adjournment to enable the parties to file their responses to the Centre and NTA's affidavits.