NEET-UG 2024: Supreme Court refuses to order re-test; paves way for counselling for admission to undergraduate medical courses

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, July 23

Ending weeks of uncertainty over admission to undergraduate medical courses across India, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to cancel NEET-UG 2024 Examination and order a re-test, saying there was absence of material on the record to suggest a systemic breach of sanctity of the examination held on May 5.

“At the present stage, there is absence of material on record to lead to a conclusion that the result of the exam is vitiated or that there is a systemic breach of the sanctity of the exam (has taken place),” a three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud said.

The Bench – which also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra — said that “directing a fresh NEET UG for the present year would be replete with serious consequences which will be for over two million students who appeared in this exam and would cause disruption of admission schedule…”

Cancellation of NEET UG 2024 could have cascading effects on the course of medical education, impact on availability of qualified medical professionals in the future and be seriously disadvantageous for the marginalised group for whom reservation was made in allocation of seats, it said.

“We are of the considered view that ordering the cancellation of the entire NEET UG 2024 exam is not justified on application of settled principles propounded by the decisions of this court on the basis of material on record,” it said.

The Bench sought to emphasise that the material on record was not indicative of a systemic leak of the question paper which would indicate a disruption of the sanctity of the examination.

The Bench directed that individual candidates having any grievance against the NEET-UG 2024 results declared by the NTA could approach their jurisdictional high courts after withdrawing their petitions filed in the supreme Court, if any.

Regarding a particular question in physics section of NEET-UG 2024 Examination, the top court accepted the expert opinion of a three-member panel appointed by IIT Delhi Director on its order and accordingly ordered the NTA to re-tally the NEET UG result on the basis that option 4 represented the only correct answer to the question.

The order paves the way for commencement of counselling process from July 24 for admission to undergraduate courses in government and private medical colleges across India.

Around 24 lakh students appeared for NEET-UG 2024 Examination conducted on May 5 by the National Testing Agency (NTA) across 4,750 centres in 511 cities and 14 centres abroad for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in more than 700 government and private institutions to fill 1.08 lakh seats.

On behalf of petitioners, senior advocates Narender Hooda, Sanjay Hegde and others sought cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 Examination for alleged paper leak and other malpractices, saying the integrity of the examination was actually gone. “We cannot reach a conclusion that everybody has been identified and rest all are pious. If NEET is a patient, it suffers from multiple organ failure and the patient has to go,” Hooda submitted.

However, the top court didn’t accept his arguments. Dictating the order after hearing the matter for several days, the CJI said, “In arriving at the ultimate conclusion, the court is guided by a well-settled test as to whether it is possible to segregate the tainted students from those who do not suffer from any taint.

“If the investigation reveals the involvement of an increased number of beneficiaries, then those who are suspects at present stage may be pursued,” the CJI said.

“To obviate any controversy, this court has independently scrutinised the data which has been submitted by the NTA. At the present stage, there is absence of material on the record sufficient to lead to the conclusion that the result of the examination stands vitiated or that there is a systemic breach of the sanctity of the examination,” concluded the Bench which had on July 18 directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to declare by Saturday 12 noon the centre- and city-wise results of NEET-UG 2024 after masking the identities of candidates.

On the basis of a technical analysis of NEET-2024 data carried out by experts from IIT Madras, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had told the Supreme Court that there was no indication of mass malpractice or local set of candidates being benefited. The NTA, too, has opposed cancellation of the May 5 test.

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