The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea to order a re-test for NEET UG, 2024, finding that the materials available on record do not indicate that the sanctity of the entire examination was affected due to incidents of paper leakage.
A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the data on record is not indicative of a systemic leak of the question paper of the examination held on May 5 for admission to undergraduate courses in medical colleges across the country.
“We are of the considered view ordering cancellation of the entire examination is neither justified on the basis of settled principles propounded by this court on the basis of materials on record,” the bench said.
“Data on record is not indicative of a systemic leak of the question paper which would indicate a disruption of the sanctity of the exam,” CJI Chandrachud said.
SC recorded the petitioners’ submissions that there was a systemic failure in the conduct of the exam and the only recourse under the law is to order a re-test. The top court also noted that in such a matter, it was important that there is an urgent need to provide certainty and finality to a dispute that affects the careers of over 2.3 million students.
CJI DY Chandrachud, during the hearing of NEET UG-related matters, proposed awarding full marks to those students who had marked option 4 as the correct answer to the controversial question in the Physics part of the question paper and not deducting any marks from those who had marked option 2 as the correct answer.
Earlier today, the CBI told the Supreme Court that the NEET UG 2024 exam paper was leaked on May 5, 2024, the exam day. The paper was leaked in Hazaribagh and transmitted to Patna, the investigating agency informed the top court.
