The court noted in its order that some parties involved in the case had not yet received the affidavits from the Centre and NTA, necessitating preparation of responses before arguments could proceed.
Digital Desk: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a series of petitions alleging paper leaks and misconduct during the NEET-UG 2024 exam, which took place on May 5 this year. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will preside over the hearing on July 18. The hearing was adjourned to this date on July 15, allowing petitioners time to respond to affidavits submitted by the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The court noted in its order that some parties involved in the case had not yet received the affidavits from the Centre and NTA, necessitating preparation of responses before arguments could proceed. Earlier, on July 11, the Central government filed an affidavit refuting claims of widespread malpractice in the NEET-UG 2024 exam. According to the affidavit, data analytics conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras indicated no evidence of mass malpractice or localized advantages leading to abnormal scores.
Additionally, the affidavit outlined that counselling sessions would commence in four rounds starting from the third week of July. It emphasized that if any candidate is found to have benefited from malpractice, their candidature would be revoked at any stage of the counselling process or thereafter.
The NTA, in its own affidavit, dismissed a purported video showing a leaked NEET-UG exam paper on Telegram on May 4 as fake. It clarified that the timestamp on the video was manipulated to create a false impression of an early leak. The NTA also conducted an analysis of candidate mark distributions at national, state, city, and centre levels, concluding that the marks' distribution appeared normal without any external factors influencing it.
The Supreme Court has taken up multiple petitions seeking directions to invalidate the NEET-UG 2024 results and conduct a fresh examination due to alleged paper leaks and irregularities during the test. Concerned aspirants approached the apex court, highlighting issues such as question paper leaks, the awarding of compensatory marks, and anomalies in NEET-UG questions.
NEET-UG, administered by the NTA, serves as the gateway for admissions into MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and related courses in both government and private institutions nationwide. The exam was conducted across 4,750 centres on May 5, with approximately 24 lakh candidates participating.
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