NEET-UG: SC asks NTA to declare centre-wise results, mask students' identities

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to declare by 12 noon of 20 July the centre and city-wise results of NEET-UG 2024 while masking the identities of aspirants.

As it strove to address allegations of malpractice in the conduct of the examination, a bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said any order for conducting the exam afresh must be based on the concrete conclusion that the sanctity of the entire process was affected.

The top court will resume hearing arguments on 22 July on a batch of pleas seeking cancellation, re-test and a court-monitored probe into allegations of large-scale malpractice in the prestigious test held on 5 May.

During the day-long hearing, the bench asked counsel for the aspirants to establish their claim about extensive irregularities in holding the examination, including question paper leaks, warranting cancellation and a re-test. The court said it prima facie appeared that the question paper leak was limited to Patna and Hazaribagh, and nothing of the sort can be said to have happened in Godhra in Gujarat.

In Patna and Hazaribagh, the question papers were allegedly leaked, while in Godhra, there were claims that a person involved in holding the test accepted money to fill up the OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets of certain candidates.

Questioning claims about question paper leaks on social media platform Telegram, the bench said, "You have to bear in mind that the idea of somebody doing this was not to make a national charade. People did it for money. So, it was not to bring disrepute to the exam and somebody was doing it to make money, which is evident. Mass leakage requires contacts also at that level so that you connect to all such key contacts in different cities."

The bench, also comprising justices J.B. Pardiwla and Manoj Misra, which commenced the crucial hearing on a batch of petitions related to the controversy-ridden medical entrance exam, said it has "social ramifications".

The top court adjourned the cases listed ahead of the NEET-UG pleas, saying "We will open the case today. Lakhs of young students are waiting for this, let us hear and decide."

The bench asked the petitioners to show that the paper leak was "systemic" and affected the entire examination, warranting cancellation. "Re-examination has to be on concrete footing that the sanctity of the entire test was affected," the CJI said.

On the issue of the ongoing probe, the bench said, "The CBI probe is on. If what the CBI has told us is revealed, it will affect the investigation and people will become wise."

The bench is hearing more than 40 pleas, including those filed by the NTA, which conducts NEET-UG, seeking transfer of cases pending against it in various high courts over alleged irregularities to the Supreme Court to avoid multiple litigation.

On 11 July, the top court had adjourned until 18 July the hearing of the pleas, including those seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024, re-test and a probe into alleged malpractice, as the responses of the Centre and the NTA were yet to be received by some parties.

More than 23.33 lakh students had taken the test on 5 May at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 overseas. In their affidavits filed earlier in the apex court, the Centre and the NTA had said scrapping the exam would be "counterproductive" and "seriously jeopardise" lakhs of honest candidates in the absence of any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.