The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the NTA to publish on its website the marks obtained by the students in the NEET-UG examination masking the identity of the respective students. The result should be declared separately city and centre- wise by 5 pm tomorrow, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwla and Manoj Misra said after Thursday’s hearing on a clutch of petitions related to the NEET-UG 2024.
Petitioners’ advocate Narendra Hooda said their side presented everything indicating that there was a largescale leak, beyond Hazaribagh and Patna. “We raised all those things in the SC which indicate that the paper has been leaked. The paper has been leaked not just in Hazaribagh and Patna, but in other places also… The court has decided the next day of hearing on Monday. Bihar Police and the government of India have been directed to bring on record the initial investigation report of the Bihar Police. NTA has been instructed to declare the result of all candidates on their website,” Hooda said.
During the hearing, the top court noted that any order for conducting the NEET-UG 2024 afresh has to be on the concrete footing that the sanctity of the entire exam was affected.
The bench asked the petitioners seeking cancellation, re-test and a court-monitored probe into the alleged irregularities in the May 5 exam to show that the paper leak was “systemic” and was large scale. “Re-examination has to be on concrete footing that the sanctity of the entire test was affected,” the CJI said.
“The CBI probe is on. If what the CBI has told us is revealed, it will affect the investigation and people will become wise,” the CJI said.
The bench is hearing more than 40 pleas, including those filed by the National Testing Agency seeking transfer of cases pending against it in various high courts regarding the alleged irregularities in the exam to the Supreme Court to avoid multiplicity of litigations.
Amid massive row over the examination, the top court on July 11 adjourned till July 18 the hearing on the pleas, including those seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024, re-test and a probe into alleged malpractices, as the responses of the Centre and the NTA were yet to be received by some parties.
More than 23.33 lakh students had taken the test on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 overseas.
The Centre and the NTA 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.