The Supreme Court said it prima facie appeared that the question paper leak was limited to Patna and Hazaribagh.
Published Jul 18, 2024 | 9:03 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 18, 2024 | 9:03 PM
NEET. (Representational image)
The Supreme Court on Thursday, July 18, directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to upload the marks obtained by NEET aspirants, with the centre and city-wise results on who appeared for NEET-UG 2024 on their website by Saturday, July 20 while masking the identities of the aspirants.
As the apex court strove to address the allegations of malpractices in the conduct of the examination, a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said any order for conducting it afresh has to be based on a concrete conclusion that the sanctity of the entire process was affected.
The top court will resume hearing the arguments on 22 July on a batch of pleas seeking cancellation, re-test and a court-monitored probe into the allegations of large-scale malpractices in the prestigious test held on 5 May.
Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta opposed the direction to publish center-wise results. However, the CJI orally stated that there had been an admitted paper leak in centres in Patna and Hazaribagh. He further said that to determine whether the leak was confined to those centres or had spread to other cities and centres, it was crucial to analyse the complete data of the results.
When the Solicitor General raised concerns about the breach of students’ privacy, the Court suggested that dummy roll numbers could be allotted to mask the identities. Though the bench initially directed the NTA to publish the results by 5 pm Friday, Senior Advocate Naresh Kaushik, representing the authority, requested more time, as the results of over 2.3 million students had to be processed. Accordingly, the bench extended the deadline to Saturday, 20 July.
During the day-long hearing, the bench asked the counsel for the aspirants to establish their claim about extensive irregularities in the examination, including leak of question paper, 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 this sort can be said to have happened in Godhra in Gujarat.
In Patna and Hazaribagh, the question papers allegedly got leaked, while in Godhra there were claims that a person involved in holding the test took money for filling up the OMR sheets of certain candidates.
Questioning the claims about leak of question paper 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 also requires contacts at that level so that you connect to all such key contacts in different cities.”
The bench, also comprising Justices JB 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”.
Tushar Mehta submitted that, according to the CBI investigation, at a particular centre in Hazaribagh, an unauthorised person took photographs of the question papers between 8 AM and 9.20 AM on 5 May, the day of the exam. These question papers were then solved, and the students who had paid the gang were given the answers to memorise.
CJI Chandrachud wondered if all 180 questions could have been solved within 45 minutes, given that the examination started at 10.15 am. The SG replied that there were seven people in the gang who divided the questions among themselves.
“The whole hypothesis that the entire paper was solved in 45 minutes and given to students is too far-fetched,” the CJI remarked. The SG stated that this was likely the reason why none of the students who cheated got qualifying marks in the exam. “The primary breach happened in Hazaribagh. The solving happened in Hazaribagh and was sent to Patna. All within 45 minutes?” the CJI wondered.
At this juncture, Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for some candidates, submitted that, according to the first FIR registered by the Patna Police, the paper leak happened the previous day of the exam. The case was later taken over by the CBI.
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 litigations.
On 11 July, the top court had adjourned till 18 July the hearing of the pleas, including those seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024, re-test and a probe into alleged malpractices, 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 that 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.
(Edited by Neena with inputs from Sumit Jha and PTI)
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