The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Central government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) to furnish details about the use of question paper set stored at Canara Bank branches for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test undergraduate exam 2024 (NEET UG 2024).
While one set of question papers were stored at State Bank of India (SBI), another set of question papers were stored ta Canara Bank branches.
The Canara bank set was supposed to be backup in case of any discrepancy or leak of SBI question paper set.
Despite that, the Canara bank paper was apparently used in certain centres.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra today asked the NTA to furnish details about the same.
"Tell us at how many centres were the Canara bank papers distributed. Out of those centres, were the correct question booklets replaced. At how many centres when questions evaluated had Canara bank answer booklets and then once the Canara bank papers were evaluated, how did the candidates fare there? Why was the answer key of Canara bank paper not disclosed. How did Canara bank give the papers with the letter of authorization and who issues this letter," the CJI asked.
This was after Senior Advocate Narendar Hooda, appearing for the petitioners, said that a school at Jhajjar had distributed Canara bank set instead of SBI set.
The Court was
hearing a batch of petitions relating to alleged irregularities including allegations of mass question paper leaks of this year's National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test undergraduate exam (NEET-UG).
Some of the petitioners have sought a re-exam on the said ground.
During the hearing today, the petitioners maintained that the leak was widespread and hence, a retest should be held.
However, the Central government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) opposed the same.
Hooda said that there was a systemic failure by the NTA and the question paper leak was widespread.
"This is a systemic failure. A girl who fails for 12 board exam in Gujarat goes all the way to Belgavi and gets 705 in NEET and CBSE syllabus is completely aligned with NEET," Hooda said.
Specifically on the systemic failure, Hooda said,
"In this exam there was a complete systemic failure. No address verification. There was no CCTV camera monitoring at any of the locations. There has been a live monitoring they say but I demolish it by saying that a wrong question paper was distributed in Sawai Madhopur and there was no surveillance. It was on social media they got to know about the wrong question paper."
However, the NTA counsel said that the leak was a limited one and the petitioners were trying to mislead the Court.
The petitioners concluded their arguments today.
The NTA and the Central government will argue tomorrow.
Pertinently, the Bench ordered Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi to constitute a committee of experts to resolve pending confusion regarding one of the questions in the NEET paper - question no. 19.
"Four options were there out of which one had to be selected. In order to resolve the issue we are of the view that an expert opinion be sought from IIT Delhi. We request IIT Delhi to constitute a team of three experts of the subject concerned. The expert team shall formulate its opinion on the question and send the opinion to the registrar general of this court by July 23, 12 noon. The registrar general shall forward this order to IIT Delhi today itself for an expeditious step for preparation of opinion as stated above," the Court ordered.
Background
Both the Central government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) which conducted the exam have
argued against cancelling NEET 2024.
The
Central government has said on affidavit a data analytics study indicated there were no abnormalities and that the chances of mass malpractices having taken place are unlikely.
The
NTA's reply claimed that the time stamp of a video cited by some of the petitioners to claim that a mass paper leak had happened a day before the May 5 exam, was edited to create a "false impression of an early leak."
During the
hearing of the matter on July 18, the Court had remarked 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 had expressed doubts over whether the Court can cancel the exam and order a reexam on the basis of such a limited leak.
The Court had said 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 Court has also
ordered the National Testing Agency (NTA) to publish the marks obtained by all 23 lakh candidates who took the exam.
