NEET UG controversy: 'Even if there is 0.001% negligence, it should be dealt with,' SC says

NEET UG controversy: 'Even if there is 0.001% negligence, it should be dealt with,' SC says

A vacation bench of the Supreme Court on June 18 told the National Testing Agency (NTA) that it expects timely action from the government body to remedy all the allegations.

“If there is 0.001% negligence on the part of anyone it should be thoroughly dealt with,” a bench of justices Vikram Nath and SV Bhatti said.  The observations were made in a plea filed by an aspirant called Nitin Vijay over the alleged paper leak in the medical entrance test. The case is expected to come up for hearing with the other cases of similar nature on July 8.

During the course of the hearing, Vijay's lawyer told the court that it must be aware of the amount of hard work the students put in to appear in these exams. "We cannot forget the labour put in by these students," the lawyer said.

Lawyer Kanu Agarwal, who appeared for the NTA and the Union government urged the court not to make any observations in this regard until a response is filed to the plea. The court however said "We expect a timely action from NTA."

The court further said " As NTA, you must act fair. If there is a mistake, say yes, this is a mistake, and this is the action we are going to take. This will inspire confidence in your performance."

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan too rejected allegations of paper leak in medical entrance exam NEET-UG, saying there is no evidence of it.

On June 13, the apex court accepted Centre and National Testing Agency (NTA)'s decision to cancel grace marks awarded to 1,563 NEET-UG candidates who did not get the requisite time to finish the examination, with the students now getting an option to take a re-test later this month.

The NTA submitted before the Supreme Court that these candidates can take the re-exam if they wish to, which is likely to be held on June 23 and the results are to be declared by June 30. NTA's representative told the apex court that in case candidates do not wish to take the re-exam, their score without the grace marks will be considered as final for NEET-UG.

The NTA also assured that the process of conducting the re-examination and declaration of results will be concluded by the July 1, as the counselling for NEET UG is likely to begin on July 4.

The court reiterated that they are not inclined to stay the counselling for UG medical seats, as the court can reverse any decision taken during the counselling.

On June 11, the SC sought NTA's response on a petition seeking the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 examination following allegations of wide-spread irregularities in the all-India test which enables admission to medical colleges.