The Supreme Court on Monday heard petitions seeking to cancel the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) UG 2024 exam for paper leak and other malpractices.
Following some arguments, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said the NEET paper leak happened before May 4.
A bench comprising the CJI, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra commenced hearing in the matter at 10.30 am today.
The NEET-UG exam this year was marred by allegations of mass question paper leaks and cheating.
Both the central government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) which conducted the exam have argued against cancelling NEET 2024.
On July 18, the previous hearing day, the court had directed the NTA to publish the centre-wise results, to ascertain if there is any abnormal spike in performance in centres, especially the centres where paper leak is suspected.
The bench also indicated that it is likely to conclude the matter today.
Senior advocate Narendra Hooda, for the petitioners seeking a re-test, told the court there were many anomalies in the result declared by NTA. They have withheld all India ranks and serial numbers of the exam centres, and have given 5,000 PDFs in the name of data declaring results.
He also claimed the paper leak happened prior to the deposit of the question papers with the respective banks.
Hooda also said the question paper was taken by e-rickshaw, but the Centre said it was OMR sheets.
CJI Chandrachud said, "The question paper ferried by e-rickshaw is an established fact but the little nuance is that the picture that was distributed was of the OMR sheet and not the question paper. Let us focus on the heart of the matter... tell us what emerges from the data."
Hooda responded by saying, "Let me sum it up on the leak part, and the manner of conducting the entire exam is brittle that it does not inspire confidence and that at every stage there is a possibility of leak.. they admit that there is a leak, they admit that dissemination happened on Whatsapp... Investigation by the Bihar Police suggest that the leak happened on May 4 and was prior to the deposit of question papers with respective banks."
"The leak is the handiwork of a gang who has worked previously also in such cases and not the case of a peon leaking one question paper, etc. The Bihar Police was directed that all materials should be placed, including all materials recovered, case diary, report etc.," Hooda said.
Solicitor General argued that middleman Amit Anand was collecting the students on the night of May 4, so that he could get the leaked papers on May 5, to which, the CJI said, "This indicates that the students were asked to memorise on the evening of May 4, and that means the paper leak happened before May 4.
Source: India Today