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PremiumNEET UG 2024 row LIVE Updates: The Supreme Court issued an order on Thursday, directing the National Testing Agency (NTA) to publish the results of NEET-UG 24 exam on their website – “city-wise and centre-wise masking the identity of the candidates". The NEET-UG 2024 exam results need to be published by 12 pm on July 20.
The Supreme Court will resume hearing pleas related to NEET-UG 2024 controversy on July 22. The court also flagged the NTA's “hypothesis" that the paper was “leaked", solved and memorised by students withing justy 45 minutes.
The court is hearing a batch of petitions alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the NEET-UG 2024 exam, held on May 5 this year. A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is hearing the case today.
NEET-UG 2024 Hearing key takeaways: During the Supreme Court hearing on Thursday, the lawyer appearing for the petitioner alleged that there was increase in the syllabus for the exam and the changes were notified just few months before. He also said the transportation of the question papers was compromised in Hazaribag.
Earlier in the day, CJI DY Chandrachud told the petitioners that ‘you have to show us that the leak was so systemic and affected the entire examination so as to warrant the cancellation of the entire exam.’ The re-examination has to be on concrete footing that the sanctity of entire test was affected, the CJI said, according to a report on legal news website LiveLaw.
What did the government say in its affidavit?
In an affidavit submitted on July 10, the Centre informed the top court that the Ministry of Education had requested IIT Madras to conduct comprehensive data analytics of the NEET-UG 2024 results. The Supreme Court was also informed that there was no evidence of widespread cheating or specific groups of candidates unfairly benefiting from abnormal scores in NEET-UG 2024.
NEET-UG 2024 was taken by 23.33 lakh students on May 5 across 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 cities overseas. Conducted by the NTA, NEET-UG is the entrance test for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in government and private institutions nationwide.
Catch all the LIVE Updates on NEET UG 2024 row here,
The Supreme Court has ordered the NTA to ensure the identities of candidates are not disclosed while declaring centre-wise results. The results have to be declared by 12 noon of July 20
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to declare by 12 noon of July 20 the centre and city-wise results of controversy-ridden NEET-UG 2024 while masking the identities of the aspirants, saying it wanted to ascertain whether candidates appearing at allegedly tainted centres scored more marks than those elsewhere.
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, will hold meetings of its academic and administrative committees to take appropriate action against four of its MBBS students who are in CBI custody in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case, an official said on Thursday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday arrested four medical students from AIIMS Patna in connection with NEET-UG paper leak case.
As per the CBI sources, the four accused, identified as Karan Jain, Kumar Sanu, Rahul Anand and Chandan Singh used to solve papers for the main accused, Pankaj Singh.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday arrested four medical students from AIIMS Patna in connection with NEET-UG paper leak case.CBI sources told ANI that the four accused, identified as Karan Jain, Kumar Sanu, Rahul Anand and Chandan Singh used to solve papers for the main accused, Pankaj Singh. Read full report here
NEET-UG Hearing Live: Senior advocate of the petitioner, Narendra Hooda says, "We raised all those things in the SC which indicate that the paper has been leaked. The paper has been leaked not just in Hazaribagh and Patna, but in other places also... The court has decided the next day of hearing on Monday. Bihar Police and the government of India have been directed to bring on record the initial investigation report of the Bihar Police. NTA has been instructed to declare the result of all candidates on their website."
The SC told NTA that the result should be declared with respect to every centre by SATURDAY 12 PM
NEET-UG Hearing Live: "The fact that there was a leak.. is there... question paper was leaked... so have dummy roll numbers but serial wise .. but let us see centre wise mark pattern.. at the end of it., even if they fail.. they and we will have the satisfaction of having done our duty, the CJI said.
On NTA's request, the Supreme Court grants the agency time till Saturday (June 20) noon to publish the results. Earlier the court said the results should be declared city and centre- wise by 5PM tomorrow, June 19.
NEET-UG Hearing Live: The Supreme Court will resume hearing pleas related to NEET-UG 2024 controversy on July 22.
Supreme Court directs the NTA to publish the results of NEET-UG 24 exam on their website city-wise and centre-wise masking the identity of the candidates.
"We direct the NTA to publish the marks obtained by students in the NEET-UG 24 exam while ensuring that the identity of the students is masked...The results should be declared separately city and centre- wise. Results will be uploaded by 5PM tomorrow," the JI said.
"Mr Hooda, even Godhra seems a localised issue. Nothing went through in the sense before it happened they were caught," the CJI told the petitioner's lawyer.
The CJI said if students got the papers after 10 am on May 5, "is it possible that from 9:30 to 10:15, they can solve the paper in 45 minutes and send it to students..." He added, "the whole hypothesis that within 45 mins there was a breach.. and entire paper was solved then within an hour SEEMS VERY FARFETCHED".
NEET-UG 2024 Hearing Live: The CJI said there are two possibilities of paper leak. "If it was leaked before it was in the banks...then the leak may have happened before May 3...or the leak happened after the papers were disseminated from banks and is bound for centres...so going by NTA hypothesis...from 8:15 to 10:15 unlikely that leak happened, solved and students memorized it," he said.
Petitioner's lawyer said if the leak did not happen when in custody of banks, then it happened "either when it was with the centers or before that..."
Replying to this, the CJI said, "As per the NTA...it was leaked on May 5 morning...and students were made to memorise it...That means, someone had solved the question paper before May 5 morning in which case the leak was prior to May 4 night...so the question is when did the papers get leaked."
The lawyer defending the allegations said a doctored video was being circulated on Telegram. “The real time is May 5, 17:40," he added. However, the petitioners argued that, "…they say time is 17:40…the fundamental flaw in the argument.. when a message or document is sought to be edited.. yes it can be edited.. and swap it too but time cannot be changed. This is example. This time they are giving is not the time of receipt of the document but it is a watermark."
Petitioner's councel said, said the leaked paper were being distributed on the May 3 itself. "Evidence of Telegram videos show that the solved papers were being circulated on May 4 itself", he added.
The petitioners' lawyer said there is a systemic failure in conducting the exam by NTA and that "the failure is multi-dimensional".
The petitioners' lawyer said there is a systemic failure in conducting the exam by NTA and that "the failure is multi-dimensional".
He said, "The transportation of question papers got compromised when for 6 days the papers were in the hands of a private courier company and the papers were being transported in an e rickshaw in Hazaribagh. instead of taking it to the bank, the driver took it to the oasis school."
“This trunk (containing papers) was found travelling on an e-rickshaw on the 3rd May in Hazaribagh under the open sky and it was received by the Principal of the school. The CBI arrested the Principal. The NTA affidavit does not refer to this," he added.
The petitioner's counsel Hooda said the NTA's case is that the question papers were dispatched to the centres on April 24 through a private courier company. It reached the SBI and Canara banks on May 3. To this, the CJI said, "These papers were sent to the SBI/Canara bank branches in the 571 cities. They were despatched on April 24 and received on May 3. So time gap is about 9 days."
The SB interrupted saying, "The CBI has investigated the entire chain from the printers to the , how there was sealing, GPS tracking....there are digital lockers...I have given that detail. There is a 7-layer safety system."
Hooda then said, "it was despatched on April 28." The CJI objected, "You said April 24." "For Hazaribag," the petitioner's counsel added.
Hooda alleged, "...this trunk was found to be travelling on an open e rickshaw travelling to oasis school and hazaribagh school principal received this trunk and now arrested by CBI. The affidavit is silent on this and the sealed trunk was delivered to him and not to any bank."
This prompted the CJI to ask, "Was the despatch date the same for all centres?" Here, the SG volunteered to explain that "there are two printing presses because there are two papers."
"So the two printing presses started distributing papers between April 24-28," the SC said. "For cities," the SG continued to explain.
The CJI said that according to NTA, there was a reduction in the syllabus. However, petitioner's counsel said, "There was a corresponding increase in the syllabus." He said he has a document to substantiate the claim. The counsel then showed topics increased in subjects and said they were notified just 5 months ahead of exam. "Surprisingly, the NTA does not make any whisper on this. They should have come clean on this," he added.
Petitioners' counsel claims "there is an inflation of marks". He said the increase of students who scored between 550 to 720 is 77,000.
The Solicitor general said, “We received 15,000 new registrations approx. Out of this new 15,094 students, those who will be getting admission in one lakh eight thousand is only 44." The NTA counsel said out of these new registrations, about 12,000 students are failing. "Only 44 out of the new registrations are getting admissions," the SG added.
CJI Chandrachud asked NTA counsel about the Rajasthan HC order which the NTA cited to open a new window for fresh applications.
Solicitor general explained why the IIT report chart on NEET-UG exam result did not show Jaipur. It is "because there was no increase in the number of toppers compared to last year", he said.
Supreme court Bench resumes after lunch; CJI asks NTA counsel about Rajasthan HC order which NTA cited to open a new window for fresh applications, as reported by LiveLaw.
"Re-examination has to be on concrete footing that the sanctity of the entire test was affected," CJI said.
Any order for conducting the NEET-UG 2024 afresh has to be on the concrete footing that the sanctity of the entire exam was affected, the Supreme Court said on Thursday.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwla and Manoj Misra commenced the crucial hearing on a batch of petitions related to the controversy-ridden medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2024, saying that it has "social ramifications".
The top court adjourned the cases listed ahead of the NEET-UG pleas and said, "We will open the case today. Lakhs of young students are waiting for this, let us hear and decide."
NEET-UG 2024 Hearing Live: The Supreme Court bench is taking a break for lunch. The bench will reassemble again to resume the hearing at 2 pm.
NEET-UG 2024 Hearing Live: CJI DY Chandrachud asked how many students changed their centres in the entire exam? The NTA counsel replied that in the name of corrections, the applicants change centres. “During that process, only the possibility of changing happens. We will never know it. As of now system doesn't catch," the NTA counsel said.
NEET-UG 2024 Hearing Live: Senior advocate Narender Hooda, who represents the lead petitioner, has raised questions on IIT Madras report. 'Inflation of marks is admitted, leak is admitted. The curve is no indication that there is no abnormality because, the data is too large, which cannot be caught,' Hooda said.
NEET-UG 2024 Hearing Live: Senior advocate Narender Hooda, who represents the lead petitioner, read the executive summary of the IIT Madras report. “The analysis by IIT Madras showed that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores," says the report.
NEET-UG 2024 Hearing Live: Senior advocate Narender Hooda, who represents the lead petitioner, said in the court that there is a conflict of interest in the IIT Madras. 'One of the Directors of IIT Madras is a member of the governing body of the NTA. They have run the data analytics taking the entire number. If data anayltics is to be run for 23 lakhs, at what stage, if 10,000 or 20,000 people have sneaked into it, you cannot detect any abnormality. The correct procedure was to apply this process to 1 lakh eight thousand people,' Hooda said. However, NTA clarified that a past director was a member of the governing body.
NEET-UG 2024 Hearing Live: CJI DY Chandrachud said during the hearing that merely because out of 23 lakh only 1 lakh will get admission, we cannot order a re-examination. ‘Re-examination has to be on a concrete footing that the entire exam is affected,' the CJI said.
NEET-UG 2024 Hearing Live: CJI DY Chandrachud said during the hearing that today, an investigation is going on, and if what CBI has told us is revealed, people will get cautious. He was responding to petitioner's request of seeing CBI report submitted in the matter.
NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live: The hearing into the matter has commenced. The Solicitor General began by informing the Court at CBI has filed a second status report last evening regarding the ongoing investigation into the alleged paper leak and other malpractices.
NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live: The Supreme Court says it will start the final hearing in the NEET matter today. “There is some urgency in it. Young students from across the country have been waiting," CJI DY Chandrachud said.
NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live: A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra will be hearing the NEET UG matter in the Supreme Court soon. The court will assemble for judicial work at 11.15 am.
NEET UG 2024Hearing Live: Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice R Mahadevan took oath as SC judges. The Court will assemble for Judicial work at 11:15 am, legal news agency LiveLaw said.
NEET UG SC Hearing Live: The National Testing Agency has filed written submissions to the Supreme Court on July 17, legal news website LiveLaw reported. The NTA submitted that 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 and thus denied.
In a written submission, NTA stated, “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 and thus denied."
The CBI has questioned three students from AIIMS Patna in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case, officials said Thursday.
Further details on the students being quizzed were not immediately known.
The agency on Tuesday had arrested Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya, a 2017-batch civil engineer from the National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, who allegedly stole the NEET-UG paper from the NTA trunk in Hazaribagh, the officials said.
SC to hear a batch of petitions related to the controversy-ridden medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2024 which was held on May 5.
The top court will also hear pleas of NTA seeking transfer of petitions pending different HCs to the top court in the NEET-UG matters.
The court can order a retest today if the breach is extensive and it is impossible to differentiate between compromised and uncompromised candidates.
CJI DY Chandrachud on July 8 mentioned that mandating a retest for nearly 23 lakh students would be considered a last resort while emphasising that many candidates come from low-income families and cannot bear the extra travel expenses unless unavoidable.
Now the question arises: Will the Supreme Court order a retest today? During the last hearing, the top court stressed the necessity of a comprehensive investigation and a detailed report before making a final ruling. On the same day, the apex court specified the criteria to determine whether a retest is required.
These criteria include whether the alleged breach was systemic in nature, whether it compromised the integrity of the examination process, and whether it is feasible to separate those who benefited from the fraud from the unaffected students.
The Central Government and the National Testing Agency have rejected calls for a re-test, arguing that the instances of malpractice were isolated and did not compromise the integrity of the entire examination. They referred to a data analytics report by IIT Madras, which found no evidence of widespread malpractice, indicating no systemic failure.
The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has issued a notice urging medical colleges to enter their seats at its official portal for the NEET-UG counselling 2024 as the counselling process is likely to begin soon.
The next hearing of the Supreme Court on the NEET-UG exam matter is on July 18.
Medical institutes participating for UG counselling can upload the seat lists on the portal till July 20.
"Institutes participating in UG Counselling 2024 are hereby informed that intramcc portal for contribution of UG seats is open now. Hence, institutes are requested to start entering their seats on the portal at the earliest so that the process of seats contribution can be completed timely," the notice issued on July 15 said.
A total of 67 students had scored a perfect 720, unprecedented in the NTA's history, with six from a Haryana centre figuring in the list, raising suspicions about irregularities in the examination. It has been alleged that grace marks contributed to the 67 students sharing the top rank.
The number of candidates sharing the top rank in the NEET-UG reduced to 61 from 67 as the NTA announced the revised results on July 1.
The Centre and the NTA on June 13 told the court that they had cancelled the grace marks awarded to 1,563 candidates.
They were given the option to either take a re-test or forgo the compensatory marks awarded for loss of time.
The NTA announced the revised rank list on July 1 after issuing the results of the re-test held on June 23.
A special court in Patna on Wednesday sent the key accused in the NEET-UG paper-leak case, who allegedly stole the exam paper from a trunk of the National Testing Agency (NTA) in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh, to the CBI's custody for 14 days, officials said.
During its custody of accused Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya till July 30, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to question him on his alleged role, his linkages with other gang members, the payments received and his local contacts who were involved in the entire theft process, the officials added.
Kumar's alleged accomplice, Raju Singh, was sent to the federal agency's custody for 10 days (till July 25) on Tuesday.
