The Supreme Court clearly stated in its decision that there is no evidence that the sanctity of the examination as a whole has been affected. The Supreme Court said that the fact that the NEET-UG 2024 question paper was leaked in Hazaribagh and Patna is not disputed. The Supreme Court said that it understands that issuing new instructions for NEET-UG for the current year will have serious consequences, which will affect more than 24 lakh students appearing for the exam.
With this, the Supreme Court clearly refused to cancel NEET-UG 2024 and conduct the exam again. The Supreme Court started hearing on the petitions related to the controversial NEET-UG 2024 exam, saying that it has social implications. The bench said that traditionally this court had sought clarifications from NTA, Center and CBI raising the main issues in the interim order of July 8, 2024.
A report submitted to the Supreme Court by experts from IIT-Delhi on the Physics question controversy in NEET-UG 2024 states that there was only one correct answer, not two. The expert committee has clearly stated that there was only one correct option, which was option number four, the National Testing Agency (NTA) was correct.
The exam paper was leaked on May 4
Senior advocate Narendra Hooda, appearing for the petitioners-students, told the Supreme Court that the investigation statements of Bihar Police indicate that the leak happened on May 4. Hooda said that we have submitted a note based on the data. They admit that the paper was leaked, they admit that it was circulated on WhatsApp. The material of Bihar Police shows that the leaked paper was given to the students on the 4th. There was no leak on the morning of May 5.
Hooda said that it is difficult to believe his statement that the incident happened on the morning of 5th and it is contrary to the report of Bihar Police. He said that the question paper was leaked even before it was deposited in the respective banks. That is, on or before 3rd May. Hooda said that it is not a peon who went to the paper room and gave the paper to 5-10 students. This is the work of some gang which has done this act earlier also. Sanjeev Mukhiya and all others have not been arrested.
Solicitor General said that Amit Anand is a middleman. He was gathering students on the night of 4th so that the paper could be given on 5th. Nitish Kumar was present where the paper was given on 5th. After reading the statement, CJI said that this shows that the students were asked to memorize the night of 4th, which means that the leak happened before 4th.
NEET result declared online
On July 18, the Supreme Court directed the NTA to declare the centre-wise and city-wise results of NEET-UG 2024 by 12 noon on July 20 while keeping the identity of the candidates confidential. The apex court said it wanted to know if candidates who appeared for the exam at allegedly tainted centres had scored higher marks than candidates from other places.
The exam was held on May 5
On May 5, over 23.33 lakh candidates appeared for the NEET-UG exam at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 foreign cities. The Centre and the NTA, in their affidavits filed in the Supreme Court, said that cancelling the exam in the absence of any evidence of large-scale privacy breach would be prejudicial and seriously endanger the lives of lakhs of honest candidates. The NEET-UG exam is conducted by the NTA for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related subjects in government and private medical institutions across the country.