The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the National Testing Agency (NTA) to publish the marks obtained by all 23 lakh candidates who took the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test undergraduate exam (NEET UG) for the year 2024.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the marks should be published without revealing the identity of the candidates.
"It would be appropriate to direct the NTA to publish the marks obtained by students in NEET UG 2024 while ensuring identity of students is masked. The result should be declared with respect to every centre. Let it be released by 12 noon on July 20," the Court ordered.
Pertinently, the Bench remarked during the hearing today that the leak of question paper of NEET UG 2024 prima facie seemed to be a limited one and not a widespread one on a large scale.
Therefore, it expressed doubts over whether the Court can cancel the exam and order a reexam on the basis of such a limited leak.
The Court remarked that going by the evidence and the timeline of events, it was unlikely that a mass leak had happened and it seemed that the wrongdoing was limited to two cities - Patna and Hazaribagh.
"The investigation by CBI will show us when they got the question paper.. it will show what is time period of leak. Shorter it is then lesser the chance of widespread leak.. like paying 75 lakh for such a paper leaked 45 minutes ago. It appears that wrongdoing has only happened in Patna and Hazaribagh. Then after this we are only left with statistics. Can we cancel an exam only on the basis of this," the Court asked.
During the hearing of the matter on 8 July 2024, the
Court had observed that there was no doubt that NEET 2024 was compromised, but added that whether or not a re-exam would be needed would depend on the extent of the leak.
It had then asked the National Testing Agency and the Central government to respond on the extent of leak.
The NTA and the Central government then filed affidavits before top court maintaining that the leak was a limited one and fresh exam would not be needed.
They reiterated the stance today.
Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Central government, assured the Court today that the leak was limited and happened on the day of the exam on 5 May 2024 after 8 am.
"The leak happened at 8:02 am. It left bank at 7:30 am. The total students who got it will not cross 150..At every stage of travel route, inspection and checks were done. The modus operandi of these team is that they give the papers to the ones who gave post dated cheques. They did not want mass leak at all. Otherwise their efforts are wasted. This gang member in Hazaribagh sent the paper to another gang member in Patna through Whatsapp," the SG submitted.
The Court said that it would like to examine the probe reports of Bihar police and Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
The Court will resume hearing the case on 22nd July, Monday.
"We will continue this on Monday at 10:30 am. We will like to see the Bihar police and EoW report," the order said.
The Court is seized of a
batch of petitions relating to alleged irregularities including allegations of mass question paper leaks.
The petitioners have sought re-exam on the said ground. Some of the petitioners have also opposed the same saying the leaks are individual aberrations and not a widespread leak.
During the hearing of the matter on 8 July 2024, the
Court had observed that there was no doubt that NEET 2024 was compromised, but added that whether or not a re-exam would be needed would depend on the extent of the leak.
