Won’t be rational to scrap NEET, will hit honest students: Govt to Supreme Court

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, July 5

Amid demands for cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 examination over alleged paper leak, the Centre on Friday opposed before the Supreme Court petitions seeking scrapping of the May 5 examination, saying it will seriously “jeopardise lakhs of honest candidates who didn’t adopt any unfair means”.

“In the absence of any proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality, it will not be rational to scrap the entire examination and the results already declared,” the Union Ministry of Education said in an affidavit filed in the top court. “It is submitted that in any examination, there are competing rights that have been created whereby the interests of a large number of students who have taken the examination without adopting any alleged unfair means must not also be jeopardised,” the affidavit read.

“The Union of India remains committed to protecting the interests of lakhs of students who have attempted the question paper fairly and after years of hard work, without trying to obtain any illegal advantage,” the Centre submitted. In a separate affidavit filed in the top court, the NTA also opposed cancellation of the examination, saying it “would be hugely counterproductive and significantly harmful to the larger public interest, especially to career prospects of qualified candidates.”

There are two sets of petitions before the SC — the first seeking scrapping of the examination over the alleged paper leak & irregularities and the second filed by 56 Gujarat-based successful aspirants seeking to restrain the Centre from going for a retest.