NEET UG, 2024: SC seeks info on extent of paper leakage to decide on retest

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the National Testing Agency to disclose the extent of leakage of NEET UG examination papers and provide the time lag between leakage and examination held on May 5, 2024, saying there was no doubt that its sanctity has been compromised.

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said if the segregation between beneficiaries of fraud and untainted candidates is not possible then retest has to be held.

The court also asked the CBI to file a status report of the investigation carried out since June 23. The court decided to hear the batch of petitions on July 11, seeking fresh examination to the NEET UG, 2024 due to paper leakage and other irregularities.

After hearing counsel for the petitioners and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Centre and the NTA, the bench said whether retest should be held or not is based on settled parameters as the court has to see whether the alleged breach took place at the systemic level, whether it is of a nature which affects integrity of the entire exam process and whether it is possible to segregate the beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students.

"In a situation where breach of sanctity affects entirety of exam and if segregation is not possible then retest is needed, but if beneficiaries are identified then retest wont be needed which involves students on such a large scale," the bench said.

The court directed the NTA to make full disclosure on the nature of leak, places where the leak took place and the lag of time between leak and conduct of the exam.

The bench also directed the Union government and the NTA to inform whether it would be feasible to use data analytics in cyber forensics unit or any employed by government to identify suspect cases, so that modality can be formed to segregate tainted from the untainted students.

"If an exercise needs to be done to deduce more beneficiaries of the leak a policy decision needs to be taken on the status of the leak. It would be necessary for the government to set up a multi disciplinary team of renowned experts to ensure due measures are taken to obviate any further breach in NEET. The constitution of the committee shall be informed to the court and the court shall decide if the committee shall go ahead or would someone be needed to ensure people from a diverse pool of domain expertise and data analytics," the bench said.

The court sought an affidavit by NTA, Union government and the CBI by Wednesday and posted the matter for hearing on July 11.