NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to Centre and National Testing Agency (NTA) regarding petition calling for cancellation of National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) for Undergraduate Medical courses held this year. This is due to alleged paper leaks.
A vacation bench, including Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah scheduled the matter for July 8. It requested a response from the NTA. "It is not that simple. Because you have done it is sacrosanct. Sanctity has been affected. So we need answers," stated Justice Amanullah. He was addressing NTA's counsel. He further emphasized urgency of the matter given the impending start of counselling process for medical admissions.
NTA's counsel requested this petition be combined with earlier petition on same issue. This was acknowledged by a bench led by Chief Justice of India on May 17. It is also scheduled for July 8. Consequently, the current petition has been listed alongside earlier one for same date.
Advocate Mathews J Nedumpara representing petitioners, urged bench to halt counselling process. However, bench declined this request. "Let counselling start. We are not stopping counselling," remarked Justice Nath noting that NTA should submit its response meantime.
The petition, submitted by Shivangi Mishra and nine others on June 1 before NEET-UG results were declared seeks re-examination due to alleged leak. Following results, additional petitions questioning NTA's decision to award grace marks to several candidates were filed. These were not addressed in today's hearing.
The Supreme Court's May 17 decision on similar petition refused to delay result announcement for NEET-UG exam which was held nationwide on May 5. Despite issuing notice on that petition and setting July hearing, bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, maintained that nationwide results could not be postponed.
The current writ petition filed under Article 32 of Constitution demands NTA reconduct exam arguing integrity of May 5 examination has been compromised due to alleged leak.
In related news, the Supreme Court also recently provided relief to employees selected on short-term basis ruling it unfair to deny them post-retirement benefits after over 30 years of service.
The unfolding situation with NEET-UG exam highlights ongoing concerns about integrity of standardized testing in India. The legal challenges faced by NTA in ensuring a fair examination process.
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