NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to declare city and centre-wise result of NEET-UG 2024 after masking the identity of candidates by Saturday noon.
“We direct the NTA to publish the marks obtained by students in the NEET-UG 2024 without disclosing their identity. The result should be declared city and centre-wise by 12 noon on July 20 and shall be uploaded on the website of the NTA,” a Bench, led by CJI DY Chandrachud, said.
The order came after senior counsel Narender Hooda submitted on behalf of petitioners that in the absence of detailed result, the petitioners were handicapped in pointing out discrepancies in the exam and that publishing the entire result on the NTA website would bring about transparency regarding centre-wise marks obtained by the candidates. The Bench, which also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, rejected Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s repeated requests that apart from the identity of candidates, the names of cities and centres should also be masked. Citing a Bihar Police report, Hooda asserted the paper was leaked a day before and it could be widespread.
The Bench said, “The probe report of the Economic Offences Unit and material collected by the Bihar Police before the investigation was taken over by the CBI shall be filed with the court master by 5 pm on July 20.”
As the hearing on petitions seeking cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 remained inconclusive, the Bench deferred the matter to July 22. On the basis of a technical analysis of the NEET-UG 2024 data carried out by experts from IIT Madras, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that there was no indication of mass malpractice or local set of candidates being benefitted.
Hooda said unless the petitioners were given access to the city-wise and centre-wise result of the exam, they would be unable to contest and contradict claims made by the Centre.
On the issue of the CBI status report on the probe, the CJI said, “The CBI probe is on. If what the CBI has told us is revealed, it will affect the investigation and people will become wise.”
The top court made it clear that any order for conducting the NEET-UG afresh had to be based on concrete evidence that the sanctity of the entire examination was widely affected even as it raised doubts over the stand of the Centre and the NTA that the paper leak happened only about 45 minutes before the start of the exam at certain centres.
“The hypotheses that the question paper was leaked, solved and given to students to memorise all within 45 minutes on the morning of the exam date (May 5) appeared to be too far-fetched,” the Bench said.
Noting that the probe indicated that the question paper was sold for Rs 75 lakh, the CJI wondered if parents would pay Rs 75 lakh for a paper leaked just 45 minutes before the exam. The petitioners have also demanded a retest and a court-monitored probe into the alleged paper leak and other malpractices in the conduct of the test.
During the hearing, Mehta said the counselling for medical admissions was expected to commence from July 24. At the very outset, noting that the case has its “social ramifications”, the Bench adjourned other cases listed ahead of the NEET-UG petitions. “We will open the case today. Lakhs of young students are waiting for this, let us hear and decide,” it said and went on to hear the matter for the entire day.