NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday decided to consider a plea by National Testing Agency for transfer of petitions pending in various High Courts to the apex court, arising of alleged irregularities and paper leakage in NEET UG 2024 held on May 5.
Also Read - Delhi HC refuses to stay NEET-UG admissions counselling, over paper leak allegations
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notice to those who filed their respective pleas in Delhi, Calcutta, Chhattisgarh and other High Courts and fixed the matter for examination on July 8, when other petitions for cancellation of June 4 results would be taken up.
A counsel raised the issue of paper leakage in Bihar and sought a direction from the court to suspend the counselling set to begin from July 6.
The court, however, declined the plea, saying it had earlier too rejected such a request.
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During the hearing, the bench allowed the NTA to withdraw those transfer petitions which questioned award of grace marks, in view of the apex court's June 13 order approving a fresh test for those 1563 candidates, who were given compensatory marks for loss of time.
A counsel contended that the NTA obtained the apex court's order on Thursday by concealment of vital facts.
On June 13, the Supreme Court had approved a request by the Union government to withdraw compensatory or grace marks allotted to 1563 candidates of NEET-UG 2024 for time loss and hold an optional re-test for them on June 23 and declare the result on June 30.
Also Read - Plea filed in SC for fresh NEET
Amid protests across the country, several aspirants of the medical entrance exam NEET have alleged inflation of marks which led to a record 67 candidates bagging the top rank, including six from the same exam centre.
The National Testing Agency, however, denied any irregularities and said the changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres are some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks.
