Cancellation of NEET UG would be counterproductive, harmful to larger public interest: NTA to SC

'The cancellation of the entire examination on the basis of the aforesaid factor, would be hugely counterproductive and significantly harmful to the larger public interest, especially to the career prospects of the qualified candidates,' read the affidavit submitted by the NTA to the apex court.

New Delhi: The National Testing Agency has claimed before the Supreme Court that the entirety of the NEET UG, 2024 was carried out fairly and with due confidentiality without any illegal practices and its results cannot cancelled due to sporadic and scattered incidents of unfair means.

In an affidavit, the agency which conducted the test on May 5, said investigation by the CBI into alleged malpractices, is underway and any conclusive opinion as to whether there was systematic failure or not can be made out only after a comprehensive consideration of all relevant factors.

"The process of examination in NEET (UG) is not vitiated and the results do not deserve to be set aside as career prospects of lakhs of students who performed well on their own merits, cannot be jeopardised on account of few sporadic and scattered instances of unfair means attempted by an identifiable number of persons at identified places which are in miniscule and insignificant in the context of very large number of meritorious candidates who have performed well," it said.

The agency maintained that it is not a case wherein the entire examination process conducted across at 4750 centers in 571 cities, including 14 cities abroad, has suffered systematic failure.

"It has not been vitiated by all pervasive factors of unfair means or paper leak etc," the NTA said.

It said that if the entire examination process is cancelled without their being any tangible factors warranting such actions, it would be highly detrimental to larger public interest involving the academic career of lakhs of students who have attempted the examination fairly without any wrong doing or even an allegation of wrong doing.

It also pointed out as many as 63 cases of unfair means (UFM) were reported to NTA due to its various security measures and the UFM committee submitted its recommendations for appropriate actions, including the withholding of the results of 33 candidates, debarment of 22 candidates up to three years. As many as 13 FIRs in cases of unfair means were registered at different examination centres, it said.

The agency also termed as completely unsubstantiated the allegation that the number of students scoring high marks were only from certain centres.

The top 100 candidates were distributed across 95 centres located in 56 cities within 18 States/UTs of the country, which highlighted the widespread participation and competitive spirit among students from different regions and educational backgrounds, the agency stated.