NEET 2024 Supreme Court Hearing Updates: Hearing Postponed to July 18
On Thursday, July 11, the Supreme Court adjourned the hearing of petitions seeking the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 exam until Thursday, July 18.
The adjournment was granted to allow petitioners to respond to the affidavits filed by the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA). Initially, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud proposed to list the matters for Monday, July 15. However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta cited personal difficulties, noting that both he and the Attorney General would be unavailable on Monday and Tuesday. Considering that Wednesday is a holiday for Muharram, the court rescheduled the hearing for Thursday, July 18.
The bench, comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, was reviewing a series of petitions calling for the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 exam, held on May 5, due to allegations of paper leaks and unfair practices.
In an affidavit filed yesterday, the Union Government denied any widespread malpractice in the NEET-UG 2024 exam. It reported that data analytics by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras showed that the mark distribution followed a bell-shaped curve typical of large-scale exams, indicating no abnormalities.
The NTA also filed an affidavit, stating that the video showing a photo of the NEET UG exam paper leaked on Telegram on May 4 was fake, with a manipulated timestamp to create a false impression of an early leak.
During the last hearing on July 8, the bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud requested responses from the Union and NTA regarding the extent of the paper leak and the possibility of identifying and separating the wrongdoers from the honest candidates. The court indicated that if the sanctity of the entire exam was compromised and it was impossible to distinguish between the beneficiaries of fraud and the honest candidates, a re-test might be necessary. The court emphasized that a re-test would be a last resort, considering the impact on nearly 24 lakh students.
