GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court has told the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) that even '0.001% negligence' in conducting the NEET-UG 2024 exams must be dealt with in all seriousness while issuing notices to both.
The apex court pointed out that the candidates had put in immense labour while preparing for the examination.
NEET is the main entrance exam for medical and allied educational fields and is conducted by the NTA every year.
The vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SV Bhatti on Tuesday, June 18 was hearing a writ petition raising similar concerns raised in previous cases such as paper leak, malpractices and controversial grace marks given to some candidates, according to reports.
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The bench tagged the present petition with the other similar matters which are listed on July 8.
Addressing Advocate Kanu Agarwal and Vardhaman Kaushik, representing the Union Government and the NTA respectively,
Justice Bhatti orally told Advocate Kanu Agarwal and Vardhaman Kaushik, representing the Union Government and the NTA respectively, "Even if there is 0.001% negligence on the part of anyone, it should be thoroughly dealt with. All these matters ought not to be treated as adversarial litigation."
He also warned that a candidate who becomes a doctor after playing fraud in the exam is more dangerous to the society. "Imagine a situation where a person who has played fraud on the system, has become a doctor, he is more deleterious towards society....we all know the labour the children undergo especially for preparing for these exams," Justice Bhatti said.
Justice Vikram Nath told the NTA that the Supreme Court expects timely action from it.
The petitioners in the present petition raised concerns over the updated status of the investigation into the NEET-UG paper leak cases. It was submitted that since the counselling for the NEET-UG is scheduled to take place on July 6, the investigation status was crucial to be known.
The bench tagged the matter with other pending petitions and asked the counsels to raise their submissions in detail on July 8 at once. The NTA and Union were also directed to file their responses within 2 weeks.
The NEET-UG examination was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres across 571 cities in India. The results were declared on June 4.
However, after the results were declared, the parents and teachers expressed doubts over grace marks awarded to 1,563 students.
After it snowballed into a huge controversy, the NTA told the Supreme Court earlier this month that it was cancelling the exam for those who got the grace marks.
These students would be allowed to retake the test on June 23, and the results would be declared before June 30, it added.
A group of 20 medical aspirants had filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking scrapping of the entrance test and a court-monitored probe into alleged irregularities.
They claimed that 67 students scored 720 out of 720 marks in the NEET 2024 exam.