NEET Exam Hearing: CJI Warns of Careful Retest, Supreme Court Asks to Identify Beneficiary of Leak

The Supreme Court continued its hearing on Monday regarding the retest of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) examination, with Chief Justice of India (CJI) emphasizing the need for caution in considering a retest. The court is currently hearing 33 petitions demanding re-examination and cancellation of the NEET-UG exam.

The hearing began with an advocate for one of the petitioners pointing out an irregularity in the result declaration. The result was supposed to be announced on June 14, but it was declared early on June 4, sparking suspicions of foul play. The advocate also claimed that a private counseling entity had sent a mail to the National Testing Agency (NTA) warning of an OMR scam, and that a telegram channel had allegedly uploaded the NEET exam question paper just a day before the exam.

The advocate also brought up the issue of an unprecedented number of toppers, with 67 students securing the top rank this year, compared to just three in 2021 and two in 2022. He argued that this was a red flag, and that the NTA had not followed its Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) during the exam.

The court questioned the advocate on how many of the top-ranked students had benefited from grace marks, and he revealed that none of them had received any. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the respondents, countered by saying that a wrong question paper had been distributed at one of the exam centers.

The CJI asked the petitioner’s counsel to explain the basis for seeking a retest, and he argued that the Bihar police’s press note had stated that the integrity of the exam had been compromised and that fraud had occurred in the mechanism. He also claimed that the NTA had not followed its SOP.

The advocate then went on to explain the technicalities of the exam procedure, including how printouts of the question paper were taken on May 5 and students were made to memorize the answers, claiming to have video evidence. The CJI asked about the exact dates when the papers were sent to and pulled out from the lockers of State Bank of India and Canara Bank, and the advocate replied that the papers had been stored in lockers five to six days before the exam and pulled out on May 5.

The CJI then asked about the exact dates when the NTA received the papers, when they were sent for printing, and how many days there were between printing and distribution. He observed that if students had been asked to memorize the questions, the leak was small, but if it had occurred on social media, it was wide, and that in the latter case, a retest could be conducted.

The court also asked the petitioner’s counsel to identify the beneficiary of the leak, and the CJI ruled out a retest due to small-scale malpractice. He called the large number of top-ranked students a “red flag” and asked if the cybercrime unit of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) could be used to investigate the matter.

The Solicitor General replied that the pattern of the top 100 ranking students had been examined, and they had been distributed across 95 centers in 56 cities in 18 states and union territories. The Supreme Court concluded that the leak was certain, but the extent of it needed to be determined, and the beneficiary of the leak must be identified.

The CJI warned that an entire examination cannot be cancelled due to the malpractice of just two students, and that a multi-disciplinary committee from experts across the country should be formed to investigate the matter. The court listed the matter for hearing on July 11 and asked the NTA, Centre, and CBI to file their affidavits by Wednesday.