NEET-UG exam 2024: SC directs NTA to declare results by July 20 while masking identity of candidates

During the day-long hearing, the bench asked the counsel for the aspirants to establish their claim about extensive irregularities in holding the examination, including leak of question paper, warranting cancellation and a re-test.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to publish city-wise and centre-wise marks of all the candidates in the NEET-UG 2024 by Saturday on its website, while ensuring identity of the students is masked.

NEET-UG, held on May 5 for admission to medical colleges across the country, is marred by the allegations of paper leak, and other irregularities.

Taking up a batch of matters seeking a direction for re-test, a bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said paper leak could not be possible without massive network.

The bench said that the idea of somebody leaking the paper was not to make national charade of the NEET-UG exam but it would be done for money, and somebody was doing it to make money which is evident now. The mass leakage required contacts and a network to connect to all such key contacts in different cities etc, it added.

"The fact that there is a leak at Patna and Hazaribag is admitted... the question papers had been disseminated. We want to ensure whether this was confined to those centres or widespread. Students are at a handicap because they don't know results. We want the students identity to be masked but let us see centre wise what was the mark pattern," the bench said.

The court also observed that the whole hypothesis that the entire paper was solved in 45 minutes and given to students was too far-fetched.

In its directions, the court told the NTA that the results should be declared separately city and centre-wise in order to show the results pattern.

"We direct the NTA to publish the marks obtained by students in the NEET-UG 2024 exam while ensuring that the identity of the students is masked," the bench said in its order on Thursday.

The court also refused a plea by senior advocate Narender Hooda, appearing for one of the petitioners, to stay the counselling for the exam.

"No, not right now. We will hear it on Monday, July 22, as the counselling is on July 24 or third week and it might go on for more than a month or more," the bench said.

During the hearing, the bench noted the investigation at present is going on. "If what the CBI has told us is revealed, it will affect the investigation. People will become wise," the bench said.

The bench also asked the counsel to show that the leak was so systemic that it affected the entire examination so as to warrant the cancellation of the entire exam.

"If we accept your wider submission, we would like your assistance on which are the lines on which the investigation must happen," the bench asked the counsel.

The counsel said the NTA had not declared the entire results.

"While UPSC declares the result of the entire people. At least NTA should have declared the results of the one lakh people who would get admission," he submitted.

The bench, however, stressed re-examination has to be on a concrete footing that the entire exam was affected.

The counsel also claimed the IIT Madras' technical analytics based on 23 lakh students performance was not reliable and that it should have been done on the basis of one lakh eight thousand candidates who would get admissions.

He said the IIT Madras report can't be relied upon as there is a conflict of interest since IIT Madras Director is member of the governing body of NTA.

"That is factually wrong. Somebody else was. Subject to further verification, whichever IIT is organising the JEE, that Chairman of that IIT is ex-officio member of NTA. But the Director who prepared this report is not a member," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted.

NTA, in its reply filed before the top court denied the allegations that there was a systemic failure in conducting the exam, and there were widespread irregularities.

"The allegations of the petitioners that there has been a systemic failure as candidates have obtained unprecedented higher marks only in the top range of mark interval are misconceived,” the NTA said.

It also said that the exam centre allotment was only two days before the exam. So nobody knew which centre is going to be allotted to the students.

The counsel said that the NTA and government are attributing two reasons for the exponential inflation in marks - one, there was reduction of syllabus; two, increase in candidature. "Inflation of marks is admitted, leak is admitted," he said.

After going through the report of the NTA, the bench said that the top hundred ranks were spread across many states, seven ranks each from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, four from Haryana, three from Delhi, six from Karnataka, five from Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and six from Uttar Pradesh.

Mehta, on his part, said that the first 100 rankers are spread across 95 centres located in 56 cities within 18 States/UTs.