Supreme Court defers NEET-UG hearing to July 18

New Delhi, July 11

The Supreme Court on Thursday deferred the hearing on petitions seeking scrapping of NEET-UG Exam 2024 for alleged paper leak and other malpractices to July 18 as some of the advocates had not got e-copies of the replies filed by the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA).

Another suspect held

• The CBI has arrested Rakesh Ranjan, alias Rocky, who is nephew of the alleged mastermind, Sanjiv Mukhiya, in the NEET-UG paper leak case
• Ranjan, who is ninth suspect to be arrested in the case, was sent to 10-day CBI custody

A three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud posted the matter for hearing on next Thursday to enable the parties to peruse the replies in order to assist it properly.

As directed by the top court, the CBI has reportedly submitted a status report on the probe into the alleged paper leak. The Centre has asserted that there was no indication of mass malpractice or local set of candidates being benefited. The NTA has also said that Telegram videos allegedly showing photos of leaked question papers were fake and manipulated. Citing a technical analysis of NEET-2024 data carried out by experts from IIT-Madras, the Centre submitted that there was no indication of mass malpractice or local set of candidates being benefited.

In a fresh affidavit filed in response to petitions seeking scrapping of NEET-UG 2024 for alleged paper leak and other malpractices, the Union Ministry of Education asserted that there was “very less likelihood of mass malpractice”.

Citing the results of the analysis done by IIT-Madras experts, it said, “The analysis shows that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefited leading to abnormal scores.”

It said, “There is an overall increase in the marks obtained by students, specifically in the range of 550 to 720. This increase is seen across cities and centres. This is attributed to 25 per cent reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and multiple centres, indicating very less likelihood of mass malpractice.”

Both the Centre and the NTA—which conducts the NEET-UG test— have opposed scrapping the examination. The Centre maintained that scrapping the entire examination would seriously jeopardise lakhs of honest candidates who didn’t adopt any unfair means. The NTA also said cancellation of the examination “would be hugely counterproductive and significantly harmful to the larger public interest, especially to the career prospects of the qualified candidates”.