Supreme Court refuses to cancel NEET-UG 2024 exam: ‘No material to show results are vitiated’

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to cancel the NEET-UG 2024 exam in its conclusive hearing of the controversial case. 

The Supreme Court dismissed the pleas seeking cancellation and re-test of the exam, saying there was no material to show that the results of the NEET-UG exam were vitiated and there was a systemic breach in its sanctity, reported Live Law.

Thus, the Supreme Court decreed that there would be no retest, suggesting that the demand for the exam's cancellation was not justified. Counselling and other admission processes will continue as scheduled, the Supreme Court ruled.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra resumed hearing on the case today. The NEET-UG exams have been under scrutiny for alleged irregulates and paper leak concerns.

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The Supreme Court said that it realised that giving direction for a fresh NEET-UG for the present year would be replete with serious consequences for over 24 lakh students who appeared in this exam, reported ANI.  

The order further said it would “cause disruption of admission schedule, cascading effects on the course of medical.”

During the hearing, the Chief Justice said that more than 23 lakh candidates appeared for the exam. "They are competing for 1.08 lakh seats of which 56,000 seats are in government hospital, balance 52,000 being in private institutions,” Live Law reported, citing the Supreme Court verdict.

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While announcing the verdict, DY Chandrachud said, “By an interim order of this court, while flagging the principal issues in contention, this court had called for a disclosure on affidavit by the NTA, Union and the CBI. Role of CBI comes to play as FIR in Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Jharkhand has been transferred to the CBI.”

“This was the issue of governance, and the government very conveniently did not raise the issue of maintainability of these petitions,” senior advocate Mathews Nedumpara, representing the petitioners, said.

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Meanwhile, Advocate Narender Hooda, who appeared on behalf of petitioners, said that the main mastermind, Sanjeev Mukhiya, who was involved in five paper leak cases, had not been arrested yet.

A batch of pleas were filed in the Supreme Court and High Courts after the results were announced on June 4. The petitions sought cancellation, re-test and a court-monitored probe into the NEET-UG 2024 exam held on May 5. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) confirmed that the paper leak in the NEET-UG case had taken place in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh centre.