The Supreme Court on July 22 directed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi to constitute a three member panel to decide on the correct answer for a question in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) 2024 which had two answers in two editions of NCERT text books.
The panel will have to decide on the correct answer and send its response to the Supreme Court by 12 PM on July 23.
During the course of the hearing, the lawyers for the petitioners contended that over 44 students got grace for an ambiguous question for which NCERT had two different answers in two different editions. That is, an edition of the text book prior to 2018 showed one answer as correct, while the 2019 edition showed another answer as correct.
Noting that this is a cause for concern, Chief Justice of India DY Chanrachud said “The instructions are that go by the latest NCERT edition. Option 4 is the correct answer as per the latest NCERT edition. Then those who answered option 2 cannot be given full marks. There, I think they may have a point."
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the central government contended that over four lakh students had given an answer based on the older edition while over five lakh students had relied on the new edition.
CJI said "CJI “There can only be one answer to this question. But what weighs on us is that there are 4 lakhs students who have benefited from this now.”
The Supreme Court is expected to continue hearing the case tomorrow.
Lawyers for the petitioners also contended that NTA’s way of conducting the exam does not inspire confidence. According to them, the leak is the work of a gang that has already done such things. Petitioners also express dissatisfaction in the way the results were declared by NTA. "
Through the first half of the day, the CJI led bench continued to grill the government on various aspects of NEET. While the petitioners contended that there was a systemic failure and insisted on a retest, the CJI made it clear that apart from isolated incidents in different states, they have not been able to demonstrate a larger systemic failure.
On July 20, the National Testing Agency, responsible for conducting the exam for admission to more than 700 government and private institutions, published centre-wise results of the test on the directions of the court.
Around 24 lakh students sat the exam conducted on May 5 across 4,750 centres in 511 cities and 14 centres abroad for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and such courses to fill 1.08 lakh seats.
During the previous hearing on July 18, the CJI said, “It appears that wrongdoing (paper leak) has only happened in Patna and Hazaribagh, then after this we are only left with statistics… Can we cancel the examination only on this basis?"
Last week, the Centre in an affidavit opposed a re-test, saying data analysed by the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras didn’t show there was “mass malpractice” in the entrance exam.
The data analysis showed that no local set of candidates benefited, leading to abnormal scores. The CJI had earlier said the sanctity of the exam was "compromised" and it was beyond reasonable doubt that the paper was leaked.
The court has rapped the government for being in "denial" and said it should be "ruthless" in dealing with candidates who paid for the leaked exam and those who supplied the question paper.
This year, the exam has been marred by allegations of paper leak and discrepancies in marking. Several medical students have been arrested in the case for allegedly leaking paper or impersonating an aspirant in exchange for hefty payments.
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