NEET-UG row: Beyond reasonable doubt that paper leak happened, sanctity of exam was compromised, observes CJI

Supreme Court

Hearing a bunch of petitions seeking directives for conducting the NEET exam afresh due to alleged malpractices and irregularities, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on July 8 observed that the sanctity of the recently held NEET exam was "compromised".

Making strong observations, the apex court held that the sanctity of the exam was compromised and said that it is beyond reasonable doubt that the paper leak occurred.

The court also 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.

During the course of the two hour hearing, the the CJI led bench grilled the National Testing Agency (NTA) that is tasked with conducting NEET UG and the central government on various aspects such as how a question paper is set, where they are stored and how they are transported to the exam centre.

“The fact that the sanctity of the examination has been compromised is beyond reasonable doubt because of the question paper leak. What is the consequence of the leak depends on the extensive nature of leak,” observed the CJI.

Accordingly, the court has set out on a mission to understand the extent of the leak. According to the court, if the questions paper was leaked and widely circulated on social media avenues like Telegram and WhatsApp, they will have to order a retest.

The bench said that if the leak was not widespread, it would not be fair to order a re-test for nearly 24 lakh students - many of whom come from poor families and may find it difficult to afford to spend money travelling to exam centres - unless necessary. A re-test is the "last option", it said.

The court also asked the NTA and the government to explain to it how it proposes to identify students who benefitted from the paper leak from those who didn't.

"What have you done with the beneficiaries (of the paper leak)? You have to be ruthless... bring some sense of confidence to the process. Let us not be in a sense of self-denial...," the court remarked.

SC's directions:

The court stated that the NTA must make full disclosure on the nature of the leak, the places where leak took place and lag of time between the occurrence of the leak and conduct of examination.

The SC said, "From this perspective NTA must clarify on the basis of the material it has on the following issues
1) When the leak took place
2) Manner in which the question papers were leaked and disseminated
3) Duration between leak and conduct of the examination."

The NTA has also been directed to  file the steps it has taken so far on identification of leak. More specifically on what it has done to

1. identify centres/cities where leak took place
2. modalities followed for identifying the leak
3.  number of students who have so far been identified to be beneficiaries

The SC said, "The IO of the CBI shall place before this court material showing when the leak is alleged to have first taken place and the modalities in which the leaked papers were made available."

The court has further directed the NTA and the Centre to check whether data analytics could be used to identify suspect cases.

It also directed a multi-disciplinary team to probe the incident. The top court will take up the case again on Thursday (July 11).

The government in its response to these pleas contended that it won’t be rational to scrap the entire National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)-UG 2024 examination, which has been hit by a string of irregularities with aspirants demanding a retest.

The government argued that in the absence of any proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in the examination, it would not be rational to scrap the entire examination and the results already declared.

Scrapping the exam in its entirety would “seriously jeopardise” lakhs of honest candidates who attempted the question paper in 2024, the affidavit mentioned. The Central government further said it has asked Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct comprehensive probe into entire gamut of alleged irregularities.

The CBI has made several arrests over the last few days in relation with the malpractices in NEET UG. In June, the SC issued notice to the National Testing Authority (NTA) while refusing to stay the counselling. The court said, "The sanctity of the exam has been affected, so we need answers.”
Tasked with conducting the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test(NEET), the NTA is facing scrutiny after students alleged irregularities and demanded the exam be scrapped.

The allegations of question paper leak and discrepancies in marks made the headlines in the aftermath of 2024 general election. It has been alleged that 67 students obtained a perfect score, a higher number than in previous examinations, which caused a controversy. In addition to this, the government decided to award grace marks to 1,563 candidates who lost out on time due to wrong question paper being handed to them. The government declared NEET UG results on June 4 instead of June 14, raising suspicions further.

Petitions were filed in the Supreme Court and in High Courts to nullify the examination owing to the paper leak and grace marks allotted to candidates. There are also allegations about discrepancies in exam results. However, the NTA and the Union government withdrew the grace marks and are set to conduct a fresh exams on June 23. Some of the petitions even called for investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).