No re-test for NEET UG 2024 as Supreme Court finds no material indicating vitiated results or systemic breaches

Supreme Court: While hearing petitions seeking the cancellation of the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) for the Under-Graduate (UG) 2024 over an alleged paper leak, irregularities and grant of grace marks over alleged ‘loss of time’, the Three Judge Bench of Dr. DY Chandrachud, CJI, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra JJ. has refused to order a reexamination for the NEET UG 2024 stating that at the present stage there is absence of material on record to lead to the conclusion that the result of the exam was vitiated or that there was a systemic breach of the sanctity of the exam.

The Court noted that in this batch of cases, the petitioners asserted that a direction should be issued for convening a re-test on the ground that (i) there was a leakage of the question paper; and (ii) there are systemic deficiencies in the modalities envisaged for the conduct of the examination.

The Court said that there is an urgent need to provide certainty and finality to a dispute which affects the careers of over two million students. Hence, the Bench clarified that the final conclusions of the Court are recorded now, and the reasons for the ultimate conclusions will follow later.

The Court said that that a leak of the NEET (UG) 2024 paper took place at Hazaribagh in the State of Jharkhand and at Patna in the State of Bihar is not in dispute.

The Court noted that the CBI has indicated that at the present stage, the material which has emerged during the investigation would indicate that about 155 students drawn from the examination centres at Hazaribagh and Patna appear to be the beneficiaries of the fraud.

The Court said that at the present stage, there is an absence of material on the record to lead to the conclusion that the entire result of the examination stands vitiated or that there was a systemic breach in the sanctity of the examination.

After perusing the data which has been produced on the record city-wise and centre-wise and the comparison of data for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024, the Court said that it is not indicative of a systemic leak of the question paper impacting the sanctity of the examination.

After applying the well settled test of whether it is possible to segregate tainted students from those whose candidature does not suffer from any taint, the Court said that if the investigation reveals the involvement of an increased number of beneficiaries over and above those who are suspects at the present stage, action shall be pursued against every student found to be involved in wrongdoing at any stage, notwithstanding the completion of the counselling process. No student who is revealed to have engaged in acts of fraud or to have been the beneficiary of malpractice would be entitled to claim a vested right or interest in the continuation of the admission in the future by virtue of the findings in this judgment.

The Court said that directing a fresh NEET (UG) to be conducted for the present year would be replete with serious consequences for over two million students who have appeared in the examination. Adopting such a course of action would, in particular,

(i) lead to a disruption of the admission schedule for the commencement of medical courses, setting back the entire process by several months;

(ii) lead to cascading effects on the course of medical education;

(iii) impact the availability of qualified medical professionals in the future; and

(iv) cause a serious element of disadvantage to students belonging to marginalized communities and weaker sections for whom reservation has been made in the allocation of seats.The Court also disapproved the decision of the National Testing Agency (‘NTA’) to treat two options as the correct answers for one question.

After accepting the expert report submitted by an expert team regarding this ambiguous question, the Court stated that both options are mutually exclusive and cannot stand together. Therefore, the Court directed that option 4 should be treated as the correct answer and the NTA was asked to re-tally the results accordingly.

During the course of the hearing, the Court was apprised of the fact that NTA was conducting a special test for 1,563 students in supersession of the compensatory marks which were awarded. The 1,563 students were given the option of either appearing for the special test or in the alternative, to opt for their original marks without the addition of compensatory marks. The Court permitted NTA to act following the test which was held.

The Court also clarified that if any student, including in the present batch, has an individual grievance not bearing on the issues which have been resolved by this judgment, it would be open to them to pursue their rights and remedies in accordance with law, including by moving the jurisdictional High Courts under Article 226 of the Constitution.