The NTA also seeks to withdraw three petitions for transferring cases from high courts to the Supreme Court.
On June 14, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Centre, asking them to respond to pleas for a probe into allegations of question paper leaks and discrepancies in the NEET-UG 2024 exam. The pleas call for an investigation by a committee led by a retired judge or an investigative agency.
During the session, petitioners highlighted the urgency of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe. Justice Vikram Nath, addressing the petitioners, emphasized the need for the NTA and the Centre to file their responses before considering such a move.
Advocate Charu Mathur, representing one of the petitions, noted a significant demand within the Indian Medical Association’s Junior Doctors Network for a CBI investigation. The petitioners alleged irregularities such as discrepancies between OMR sheets and scorecards, inflation of cut-off scores, and an unprecedented number of perfect scores, including six top scorers from the same exam center in Haryana.
The court has given the NTA and the Centre two weeks to respond, scheduling the next hearing for July 8. The NTA also plans to conduct a re-test for 1563 candidates who received grace marks, an independent decision noted by the court. Additionally, the NTA seeks to transfer related cases from various high courts to the Supreme Court.
Despite the ongoing litigation, the Supreme Court maintained its stance against changing the counselling date from July 6, rejecting a request to move it to July 9.
The NEET-UG exam, conducted on May 5 across 4750 centers in 571 cities for over 24 lakh candidates, remains under scrutiny.
