SC to hear on Thursday pleas related to controversy-ridden NEET-UG 2024

PTI, Jul 18, 2024, 8:53 AM IST

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Thursday a batch of petitions related to the controversy-ridden medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2024 which was held on May 5.

According to the cause list of July 18 uploaded on the apex court’s website, a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra would hear more than 40 pleas, including those filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA) seeking transfer of cases pending against it in various high courts on the NEET-UG row to the Supreme Court to avoid multiplicity of litigations.

On July 11, the top court had adjourned till July 18 the hearing on the pleas, including those seeking cancellation of the exam, re-test and probe into alleged malpractices in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024, as the responses of the Centre and the NTA were yet to be received by some parties.

The bench had observed that it has received a status report from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the progress made in the probe into the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the exam.

In an additional affidavit filed in the apex court last week, the Centre has said data analytics of the results of NEET-UG 2024 was conducted by IIT-Madras which found there was neither any indication of “mass malpractice” nor a localised set of candidates benefiting from it and scoring abnormally high marks.

The government’s assertion assumes significance in view of the observations made by the top court on July 8 that it may order a re-test if there were large-scale malpractices in holding the exam.

The Centre’s fresh affidavit has said experts from IIT-Madras have found that the marks distribution follows the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any large-scale examination, indicating no abnormality. A bell curve describes the shape of data conforming to a normal distribution.

The affidavit said for 2024-25, the counselling process for undergraduate seats will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July.

The NTA has also filed a separate additional affidavit on the similar lines and said it has carried out an analysis of distribution of marks at the national, state and city 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 of the system in place for ensuring confidential printing of question papers, their transportation and distribution.

While hearing the pleas on July 8, the top court had observed that the sanctity of the NEET-UG 2024 has been “breached”.

Saying that a re-test may be ordered if the entire process was affected, the bench had sought details from the NTA and the CBI, including the timing and manner of the alleged paper leak, besides the number of wrongdoers to understand the extent of irregularities claimed by the petitioners.

More than 23.33 lakh students had taken the test on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including in 14 cities overseas.

The Centre and the NTA, in their earlier affidavits filed in the apex court, had said that scrapping the exam would be “counterproductive” and “seriously jeopardise” lakhs of honest candidates in the absence of any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.