SC Junks Review Plea Against Judgment Denying Reexamination

The Supreme Court in a recent order dismissed a review plea filed against its July 23 verdict in which it had refused to order the re-test in NEET-UG 2024 exams, saying re-examination cannot be justified on the basis of available material registered.

A bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Maoj Misra rejected a plea seeking review of the verdict. The court also rejected the prayer to present the revision plea in open court.

The top court on July 23 ruled that the fact that paper leak in the NEET-UG exam took place in Hazaribagh and Patna is not in dispute.

CJI DY Chandrachud while dictating the order said that the court realizes that conducting a new NEET-UG for the current year would be fraught with dire consequences for the over 24 lakh students who appeared for this exam and disrupt the admission schedule would cause.

He further added that re-examination will also have a cascading effect on the course of medical education, impact the availability of qualified medical professionals in the future and seriously disadvantage the marginalized group for whom reservation is made when allocating seats.

“We are thus of the opinion that ordering cancellation of the entire examination is not justified on settled principles proposed by this court on the basis of material on record,” CJI said.

The top court has taken note of the CBI status report dated July 10, 2024 and July 21, 2024.

The order noted that the CBI’s revelations show that the investigation is still continuing. However, the CBI’s status report at this stage shows that around 150 students appear to be the beneficiaries of the fraud. The court said that since the investigation is not yet final, this court has asked the Center to show whether there are any trends showing leakage or a red flag in the Center indicating widespread leakage. On the basis of which the Center provided the IIT-Madras report.

“The court has independently examined the data… At this stage it is not possible for the court to reach a conclusion showing that the results of the exam are invalid.” CJI said while pronouncing judgment.

The court held that the data recorded is not indicative of a systemic leak of the question paper, which would indicate a disruption of the sanctity of the exam.

The top court further said that infected students in this case can be distinguished from the non-infected students and if the survey reveals a larger number of beneficiaries, action will be taken against such students at any stage despite the completion of the counseling process.

“No student who is revealed to have been involved in this fraud, or any beneficiary, would be entitled to claim any vested right for continued admission,” the apex court said.

The court also directed the NTA to redetermine the exam result based on the correct answer to an “ambiguous question” with 4 marks in the 2024 NEET-UG exam, with the NTA awarding marks to all students who took option 4 or option had been marked. 2 as correct answer. One answer was correct based on the old NCERT and another answer was based on the new NCERT.

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