NEET-UG case: Supreme Court asks IIT-Delhi to form experts panel to decide on contentious question; hearing to continue on July 23

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked IIT Delhi Director to constitute a team of three experts on Physics to ascertain correct answer of a question in the NEET-UG 2024 exam and apprise it of the decision by 12 noon on Tuesday.

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also noted the investigation by the Bihar police indicated the question was leaked before May 4 and students were made to memorise the answers.

On hearing a plea for re-test of the examination conducted for admission to undergraduate courses across the country, the court issued the order on formation of the experts panel as it was contended some of the candidates left the question unanswered due to ambiguity to avoid negative marking.

Some of the petitioners said that as per the old NCERT syllabus one option was correct, but the new syllabus of NCERT indicated another option as correct, but the National Testing Agency (NTA) treated both the options as correct.

The court fixed the matter for further hearing on Tuesday.

The NTA and the Centre are expected to put forth their submission on pleas seeking re-test of May 5 examination due to paper leakage and other irregularities.

During the hearing, petitioners seeking a direction for re-test claimed the NEET-UG exam was held without any procedures being followed. There was a complete systemic failure and there was no address verification or CCTV camera monitoring at any of the locations, they alleged.

"It was having a complete systemic failure, no address verification, no CCTV camera monitoring at any of the locations. There has been a live monitoring, they said. but a wrong question paper was distributed in Sawai Madhopur and there was no surveillance. It is on social media they get to know about the wrong question paper," senior advocate Narendra Hooda, representing some petitioners, contended before the court.

The court noted a few statements recorded by Bihar Police revealed that students were made to learn the answers on the night of May 4, which means that the paper was released prior to the date.

While complying with the court's direction, the NTA published the complete results without roll number as it had to be masked for privacy.

The counsel also claimed the Bihar police investigation after recording statements found that the paper was leaked on May 4.

The court also noted the question paper ferried by e-rickshaw is an established fact, but the little nuance is that the picture that was distributed was of the OMR sheet and not the question paper.

The counsel claimed the manner of conducting the entire exam did not inspire confidence. At every stage there was a possibility of leak, they admitted that there was a leak and that dissemination happened on WhatsApp.

The court had on July 18 directed the NTA to publish centre-wise marks obtained by students in the NEET-UG exams to allow some transparency and disclose patterns of the result.