NEET-UG: Hearing in Supreme Court today on NEET paper leak, more than 40 petitions including transfer demand of NTA included

The Supreme Court will hear on Thursday the petitions related to the controversial National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Graduate (NEET-UG). These also include petitions seeking transfer by the National Testing Agency (NTA). To avoid multiplicity of litigation, the cases pending against it in various high courts on the NEET-UG dispute are pending in the apex court.

According to the list of cases for July 18 uploaded on the website of the apex court, a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra will hear more than 40 petitions. About 24 lakh candidates appeared in the examination held on May 5.

On July 11, the apex court adjourned the hearing till July 18 on the petitions seeking cancellation of the examination, re-examination, and investigation into alleged malpractices in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024 as a response to the Center. The bench had said that it had received a status report from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the progress made in the investigation into alleged irregularities in the conduct of the examination.

At the same time, an additional affidavit was filed in the Supreme Court last week, in which the Center said that the data analysis of the NEET-UG results was done by IIT-Madras, which found that there was neither any indication of mass malpractice nor any local group of candidates. This benefited and obtained abnormally high marks. This claim of the government comes in the wake of the observations made by the apex court on July 8. The Center says that if there is large-scale malpractice in conducting the examination, the court can order a re-examination.

Now the Center has filed a fresh affidavit, stating that experts from IIT-Madras have found in the data analysis of the NEET-UG results that the distribution of marks follows a bell-shaped curve, which is seen in any large-scale examination. This does not indicate any abnormality. The affidavit said that the counseling process for undergraduate seats for 2024-25 will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July.

Here, the NTA has also filed a separate additional affidavit on the same lines, stating that it has analyzed the distribution of marks at the national, state, and city levels. This analysis indicates that the distribution of marks is normal. There is nothing to affect the distribution of marks.

Let us tell you that while hearing the petitions on July 8, the Supreme Court said that the sanctity of NEET-UG 2024 had been violated. If the entire process is affected, a re-examination can be ordered, the bench has sought details from the NTA and the CBI including the time and manner of the alleged paper leak as well as the number of wrongdoers to understand the extent of irregularities.