During the NEET-UG exam hearing on Monday, the Supreme Court admitted that the paper had been leaked and stated that it was crucial to determine whether the breach was significant enough to conduct a reexamination. A three judge panel comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra stated that a retest must be conducted if it is not possible to separate candidates who have been the beneficiaries of fraud from those who have not.
The next hearing is set for July 11. Based on their responses in the case, the Supreme Court stated that a decision regarding a retest would be made during the ensuing proceedings.
NTA ordered to provide full disclosure
The National Testing Agency (NTA) has been compelled by the court to provide disclosures. The Union government and NTA were questioned by the Supreme Court multiple times during the hearing over the timing of the question framing. Before exams, how were they stored, when were they printed, and when were they transported?
It further stated that the order of events made it evident that the NEET-UG question paper had been leaked. It did, however, add that it must be determined whether the question paper leak was sufficiently widespread to warrant a reexamination. CJI Chandrachud remarked, "After all, we are dealing with the lives and careers of 23 lakh students."
"The fact that the sanctity of the exam has been compromised is beyond doubt...it is an admitted fact that there is a leak, and the nature of the leak is something that the court needs to examine. What steps did the NTA and central government take to identify the reasons for the leak," the CJI asked.
"What has the government done so far to identify the beneficiaries of the paper leak? And what is it doing to ensure that this paper leak does not happen in the future," the CJI posed the questions to the centre.
CJI said, "It can broadly be classified into 3 aspects: (1) nature of leak (2) places where leak took place and (3) lag of time between occurrence of leak and conduct of exam." NTA was also asked to make a full disclosure on the steps taken so far for identification of beneficiaries on their part and whether it is feasible to identify suspect cases using data analytics.
The court also suggested that the government may consider setting up a multi-disciplinary committee consisting of experts to ensure measures are being taken to stop any further breaches in the future. If such a committee has been set up then full details need to be submitted to the court, CJI said.
Disclosure sought from CBI as well
The top court set a further hearing for Thursday, July 11, and instructed the CBI to submit a progress report on the investigation into the document leak FIRs by Wednesday.
The bench was deliberating over thirty complaints concerning the contentious medical admission exam. These included petitions alleging malpractice and anomalies in the examination administered on May 5 and requesting an order to retake it.
In addition, more than fifty Gujarat-based NEET-UG students who were successful are presenting a separate appeal to the court asking for a ruling prohibiting the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) from calling off the exam.
