NEET results row: Supreme Court says sanctity of exam affected, need answers

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, hearing the petition seeking the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 exams over an alleged paper leak, said that the “sanctity of the exams has been affected” and “we need answers.”

Seeking a response from the National Testing Agency (NTA), a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah refused to stay the counselling process for NEET UG 2024. As Senior Advocate Mathews J Nedumpara asked the apex court to stay the counselling, Justice Nath responded, “Let it start. We are not stopping the counseling.”

“It is not that simple. Because you have done it, it is sacrosanct. Sanctity has been affected, so we need answers,” Justice Amanullah told the counsel representing the National Testing Agency.

The bench listed the matter for further hearing on July 8, and added that if more time is required to file the response, the court will stop the counselling.

On the Supreme Court’s notice to the NTA, advocate J Sai Deepak said, “Multiple petitions have been listed in the Court. Some of the petitions were filed before the declaration of results on the basis that there had been a leak of the paper itself. Notices have been issued in regard to those petitions,” news agency ANI reported.

J Sai Deepak said that he would be representing the other petition filled by Alakh Pandey, CEO of the educational platform Physics Wallah.

“Our petition is slightly different. We represent Alakh Pandey, who has collected signatures from about 20,000 students, which clearly shows that close to 70 to 80 marks have been awarded in grace marks randomly to at least 1,500 students. We are challenging the arbitrary award of grace marks. The court has indicated that our matter will also be taken up with the other matters, but the court is clear that it will not stay in the counseling process at this stage,” he said.