NEET-UG row: SC notice to govt, NTA on plea seeking independent panel to probe allegations
The petitioners sought an investigation into the NEET 2024 imbroglio by an independent panel formed by the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on June 20 decided to examine pleas questioning the Centre’s appointment of National Testing Agency (NTA) chairman Prof. Pradeep Kumar Joshi to the high-powered committee which recommended a re-test for 1563 undergraduate National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) candidates who were given grace marks.
NTA, which conducts the NEET-UG exam, is facing allegations of question paper leaks and other irregularities. Petitions against the NTA and the Union Government have been piling up in the past two weeks.
The petition argued the likelihood of bias or a case of judging one’s own cause.
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“The chairperson of this high-powered committee is the head of the NTA. The head of the NTA has given a pat on his back and says there is nothing wrong but we are withdrawing the scores of 1563 candidates,” a counsel, appearing in one of the petitions, submitted before a Vacation Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SV Bhatti.
The petitioners sought an investigation into the NEET 2024 imbroglio by an independent panel formed by the Supreme Court.
The lawyer referred to the last time the court had formed such a committee headed by a former apex court judge in the Adani-Hindenburg short-selling case.
“The Securities and Exchange Board was asked to investigate, but this court also constituted an independent panel,” the lawyer argued.
Petitions numbering nearly 10 listed on Thursday also questioned the method used by the NTA to arrive at the figure of 1563 candidates for retest scheduled on June 23.
“How did the NTA arrive at the figure of 1563… What criteria was followed? The list of these students have not been made public on the website or anywhere… Absolutely arbitrary,” the petitioners submitted.
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The petitioners include a cross-section of aspirants, relatives and even a coaching centre, submitted. Over 24 lakh students had appeared in the NEET-UG 2024 exam held on May 5.
One of the petitioners have also challenged the validity of holding the re-test itself, arguing that the law has only prescribed for one NEET a year.
“There can’t be two in a year?” he submitted.
However, the court listed the petitions for July 8, while repeatedly denying pleas to postpone the date for counselling, which is likely to be held on July 6.
“We will not stay the counselling. After all, if the exam eventually goes, the counselling will also go,” Justice Nath observed orally.
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The Bench, nevertheless, stayed proceedings linked to the NEET case in Rajasthan, Calcutta and Bombay High Courts on the basis of petitions filed by litigants to transfer them to the Supreme Court to be heard along with other pending pleas on July 8.
The many petitions pending in the Supreme Court, and scheduled for hearing on July 8, include prayers for a CBI investigation and even re-examination.
The petitioners have alleged irregularities like students receiving different marks on their scorecards compared to their OMR sheets; unprecedented inflation of cut-off and average marks resulted in an unprecedented 67 candidates achieving a perfect score of 720/720; six of these toppers were from the same exam centre in Haryana; students having scored 718 and 719 marks, which is “statistically questionable”; no disclosure of method/criteria adopted for grant of compensatory marks for loss of time, etc.
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