NEET UG 2024 paper leak row: Supreme Court says cancelling exam is ‘last resort’, next hearing on July 11 – India News

A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra on Monday filed 38 petitions in connection with alleged malpractices and irregularities in the NEET-UG examination.

The petitions seek to cancel the NEET-UG 2024 exam due to allegations of document leaks.

The Supreme Court said that it was “clear that a leak of NEET UG question papers has taken place. We want to know the number of beneficiaries of the leak of the question papers and the action taken against them.”

Read also : NEET UG 2024 Live Updates

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that if the leakage of exam papers was taking place through social media, like Telegram, WhatsApp and electronically, “it spread like wildfire.” The judges requested information from the review body, the NTA.

While hearing the petitions, the court ordered the National Testing Agency (NTA) to fully disclose three aspects: (1) the steps taken by the NTA to identify the centres/cities where the leakage took place; (2) the modalities followed for identification and; (3) the number of students who have so far been identified as beneficiaries.

The NTA has been directed by the CJI to clarify, based on the information available so far: (1) when the leak of the examination papers took place; (2) the manner in which the papers were leaked/disseminated; and; (3) the time elapsed between the leak and the actual conduct of the examination.

Read also : NEET question paper leak: Bihar police report reveals four candidates memorised answers a day before exam

The court also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit a status report by July 10.

Lawyers representing a petitioner said they were seeking cancellation of the exam on grounds like leak of papers, manipulation of OMR sheets, impersonation and cheating. Chief Justice Chandrachud said that “if the leak was propagated through social media, then a retest must be ordered.”

The Supreme Court said: “The question of cancellation of an examination for 24 lakh students is a question of last resort.”

The Supreme Court also sought clarification on the national scope of the undisclosed results due to these leaks and their distribution among states. In addition, the Court questioned the ongoing process of identifying the wrongdoers.

Meanwhile, the Union government has expressed its reluctance to conduct the NEET UG 2024 again in its submission before the Supreme Court, saying that scrapping it altogether would “seriously jeopardise the lakhs of honest candidates” who appeared for the exam this year on May 5.