NEET Supreme Court Hearing Today: CJI Raises 6 Key Questions That Could Decide NEET Exam's Fate

The Supreme Court of India is currently hearing pleas seeking the cancellation of the NEET 2024 exam, held on May 5, due to alleged irregularities and a paper leak. The bench, comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, is reviewing around 40 NEET petitions since 10:30 AM.

Chief Justice Chandrachud has remarked that the evidence provided so far does not sufficiently demonstrate a widespread paper leak. Despite this, the petitioners maintain that the paper leak occurred well before May 5, giving students ample time to memorise the answers.

In light of these claims, Chief Justice Chandrachud posed six critical questions to the National Testing Agency (NTA) regarding the NEET question paper mix-up:

1. How many centres were provided with the Canara Bank Question Booklets?
2. At how many of these centres were the correct question booklets replaced?
3. How many centres in total were the questions evaluated based on the Canara Bank question paper?
4. Once the Canara Bank paper was evaluated, how did the students perform?
5. Why was the answer key for the Canara Bank question paper not released?
6. How does the Canara Bank/SBI determine to whom to release the paper? Who issues the Letter of Authorisation? Would the person collecting the paper have authorization from both banks or just the correct one?

These questions aim to uncover the extent and management of the alleged paper leak.

Senior Advocate Narender Hooda, representing the petitioners, was asked to provide evidence that the paper leak was indeed widespread.

In response to the question of why students were offered grace marks, the Solicitor General explained, "It was decided based on a CLAT judgment which states that if the time available to students is less, grace marks are given. Subsequently, the decision was revoked, and a retest was held."

The National Testing Agency remains firm in its stance that the NEET paper leak was contained, and the results were prepared within the expected parameters. The NTA asserted in the Supreme Court that with the re-test and the removal of grace marks, NEET scores were standardised. The NTA has made centre-wise and city-wise results available on its official website for verification.

This hearing continues to be a pivotal moment for thousands of students whose futures hinge on the integrity and outcome of the NEET examination process. The Supreme Court's decision will be closely watched, as it will have significant implications for the credibility of the exam and the admission process to medical colleges across India.