"Ordering re-test or Cancelling of entire NEET not Justified" ::::: Supreme Court Finds Lack Of Widespread Data To vitiate the Sanctity of NEET-UG 2024

No NEET-UG retest, Supreme Court says no evidence to suggest systemic breach

 Supreme Court Finds Lack Of Widespread Data To Vitiate The Sanctity of NEET-UG 2024 

CJI D Y Chandrachud: The data produced on record is not indicative of the systemic leak of the question paper which would lead to the destruction of the sanctity of the exam.  

CJI also said the Court is mindful of the fact that directing a fresh NEET UG would have serious consequences on the 2 million students appearing for the exam including (1) destruction of admission schedule to medical courses; (2) effects on the course of medical education; (3) impact on the availability of medical professionals in future and (4) serious element of disadvantage to marginalised students.  

CJI: We Are Of The View That Ordering The Reneet Or Cancelling Of The Entire Neetug 2024 Exam Is Neither Justified On The Application Of The Settled Test Propounded By Decisions Of This Court On The Basis Of The Material On Record

CJI (on the aspect of retest of 1563 grace marks candidates) : NTA is permitted to the act accordingly following the test which was held. 

"It will be important to clarify that if any student has an individual grievance not bearing on the issues resolved in this judgement, will be open to them to pursue their rights and remedies in accordance with law." 

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, was hearing a batch of petitions demanding retest of the NEET-UG exam conducted on May 5 this year on grounds of question paper-leak and other malpractices.

Delivering the judgment, Chief Justice Chandrachud said the court had scrutinised the data presented by the National Testing Agency and a report by IIT Madras, which highlighted that there was no paper leak on a mass scale.  

The court also stated that there was no dispute over the fact that there was a leak in question paper at Hazaribagh and Patna. The bench further cited the CBI's report on the paper leak, noting that 155 students at these centres were direct beneficiaries of the said paper leak.

"Since the probe by the CBI has not attained finality, this court had in a previous order required the Union to indicate whether certain trends regarding abnormality or otherwise could be drawn from results from 4,750 centres in 571 cities. The government has produced the analysis by IIT Madras indicating its position on the basis of data analytics," the Chief Justice said.

The court clarified if the CBI investigation reveals the involvement of an increased number of beneficiaries of the paper leak, action would be taken against them.

On the issue of two correct options of a question in the NEET paper, the Chief Justice cited the IIT Delhi report which concluded option 4 was correct. The Chief Justice also directed the NTA revise the result on the basis of the corrected option.