The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to publish on its website the marks obtained by all the students who appeared in the Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for undergraduates (NEET-UG) 2024, ensuring the identity of students is masked.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra ordered that the results should be published separately, city and centre-wise, by Saturday at 12 noon.
The apex court issued this direction to the NTA after petitioners, who were students, urged the court to mandate the publication of all students’ results to enhance transparency.
In its order, the top court stated, “The petitioners have submitted that it would be appropriate if the results of the NEET-UG 24 exam are published on the website to bring about some transparency regarding the centre-wise marks obtained by candidates. We direct the NTA to publish the marks obtained by students in the NEET-UG 2024 exam while ensuring that the identity of the students is masked. The results should be declared in relation to each centre and city separately.”
The bench said it will continue hearing pleas alleging paper leaks and malpractice in the NEET-UG 2024 exams on July 22. The top court held a day-long hearing on the NEET-UG matter.
The apex court was hearing a batch of pleas seeking direction to recall the NEET-UG 2024 results and conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices during the test. Aspirants had approached the top court, raising concerns about the leakage of question papers, awarding of compensatory marks, and anomalies in the NEET-UG questions.
The NEET-UG examination, conducted by the NTA, is the pathway for admissions into MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
The NEET-UG 2024 was held across 4,750 centres on May 5, with around 24 lakh candidates appearing. During the hearing, the apex court posed several questions to the NTA regarding the alleged paper leaks and malpractices in the NEET exam.
It asked the NTA how many students out of the 23.33 lakh who appeared for the exam changed their centres.
The NTA responded that in the name of corrections, students change centres, and 15,000 students utilized the correction window. The NTA added that students can only change the city, not the centre. The centre is allotted by the system, and the allocation happens only two days before the exam, so nobody knows which centre they will be assigned.
The petitioners’ counsel argued that question papers were dispatched to the centres on April 24 through a private courier company and reached the SBI and Canara banks on May 3.
In response, the CJI noted that the papers were dispatched on April 24 and received on May 3, indicating a time gap of about nine days. The top court was informed that the question papers were sent to SBI and Canara Bank branches in 571 cities, covering 4,750 centres.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the CBI has investigated the entire chain of events from the printers to the centres, emphasizing the sealing, GPS tracking, and the presence of digital lockers in a 7-layer safety system. There are two printing presses because there are two papers.
The petitioners’ counsel informed the bench that a trunk was found to be traveling on an open e-rickshaw to Oasis School, and the Hazaribagh school principal received this trunk, leading to his arrest by the CBI. The sealed trunk was delivered to him, not to any bank.
The counsel argued, “There is a systemic failure by the NTA in conducting the exam. The failure is multi-dimensional. The transportation of question papers was compromised when, for six days, the papers were in the hands of a private courier company, and the papers were being transported in an e-rickshaw in Hazaribagh. Instead of taking it to the bank, the driver took it to the Oasis School.”
The dissemination of the leaked papers started on May 3, with evidence of solved papers circulating on Telegram on May 4.
“Given the nature of social media, it is impossible to accurately determine the exact spread of the leaked papers and the beneficiaries,” argued the counsel.
CJI Chandrachud questioned why people making money out of leaked papers would circulate them on a mass scale.
“The idea of somebody doing this is not to make a national charade of the NEET exam. People were doing it for money. So, it was not to bring disrepute to the exam; somebody was doing it to make money, which is evident now. Mass leakage of paper also requires contacts at that level to connect with all such key contacts in different cities, etc. Anybody making money out of it wouldn’t circulate it on a mass scale,” said the bench.
The CJI asked the NTA and the Centre whether it was possible for students to receive the papers at 10:15 am, with 180 questions to be solved, in just 45 minutes.
The Solicitor General replied that there were seven paper solvers who demarcated 25 questions each.
“The whole hypothesis that within 45 minutes there was a breach and the entire paper was solved and given to students seems very far-fetched,” said the CJI.
The Solicitor General explained that the accused’s modus operandi was to give the papers to those who provided postdated cheques. They did not want a mass leak, as that would waste their efforts. A gang member in Hazaribagh sent the paper to another gang member in Patna via WhatsApp.
Regarding the Godhra incident, the bench said it could not confirm it was part of widespread malpractice as there is no evidence that the cheating took place on a large scale.
“It appears that wrongdoing has only happened in Hazaribagh and Patna… After this, we are only left with statistics that 61 students got 720/720… Can we cancel the entire examination on that sole basis?” the bench asked the petitioners’ counsel.
(ANI)