NEET 2024: Supreme Court issues notices on NTA's pleas to transfer HC cases to SC

New Delhi: Considering a batch of pleas filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA) seeking transfer of cases pending against it in various high courts on the NEET 2024 row to the top court to avoid multiplicity of litigations, the Supreme Court has issued notices to the private parties in the matter. 

The tagged petitions will now be heard together with the main batch on July 18th 2024, Thursday.

The NTA had submitted that several pleas seeking cancellation of the National Eligibility-and-Entrance Test–Under Graduate (NEET-UG), 2024 over allegations of question paper leak and other malpractices are pending in several high courts.

Earlier, a vacation bench had on June 14 issued notices to the parties on similar pleas by the NTA.

“Issue notice and tag,” the bench said, adding that these pleas will also be taken up together with the pending petitions on the NEET-UG row on July 18.

The NTA also urged the bench to stay the pending proceedings in various high courts. The CJI said once the Supreme Court has issued notices on transfer petitions, the high courts, procedurally, do not proceed with the hearing.

The bench asked the NTA counsel to bring this to the notice of the high courts concerned. The top court was hearing as many as five petitions seeking transfer of cases from various high courts to it, reports PTI.

Earlier, the bench had on July 11 adjourned till July 18 the hearing on a clutch of other petitions seeking cancellation, re-test and probe into alleged malpractices in the conduct of NEET-UG, 2024 as the responses of the Centre and the NTA were not received by some parties.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that while considering the pleas seeking NEET UG retest, the Supreme Court on Monday i.e. on July 11 had noted that undoubtedly the NEET paper leak took place and the sanctity of the exam was compromised.

"The fact that there was a leakage of question papers cannot be disputed. Now, what is the consequence of that leak would depend on the nature of that leak," the Chief Justice had observed on Monday.

Further, observing that cancelling the entire exam might affect 24 lakh students who appeared in the exam, the Apex Court bench comprising the CJI had asked the National Testing Agency and the Union Government to identify the red flags and to find out whether the paper leak took place at a systemic level and if the beneficiaries or the likely beneficiaries of the paper leak could be identified.

In this regard, the Apex Court bench had also hinted at the possibility of holding a 'limited retest' for those who were beneficiaries of the paper leak. Further, the Apex Court also sought to know from the NTA and the Govt about the actions taken to identify the beneficiaries of the paper leak.

On Monday, the Court had asked the Union Government and NTA to respond to some specific queries by Wednesday. NTA had been asked to clarify when the leak took place, the manner in which the question papers were disseminated, time duration between the leak and the exam may on 5th May etc. The Court had also sought to know from the Agency about the steps taken to identify the beneficiaries of the leak, the steps taken by NTA to identify the centres/cities where the leaks took place and the modalities followed to identify the beneficiaries ,and also how the leak was disseminated.

Apart from this, the Apex Court bench had also asked the CBI to file a status report by Wednesday. Further, the court had advised the Government to set up a multi-disciplinary committee to ensure measures to put a stop to any paper leak instances in the future. In case, such a committee has already been created, the Apex Court bench sought to know the details.

Opposing the pleas seeking a re-NEET, the Central Government in its affidavit submitted on Wednesday stated that there was neither any indication of "mass malpractice" nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores in NEET-UG 2024.

Citing the data analytics of results of NEET-UG 2024 conducted by IIT Madras and the findings given by the experts, the Centre argued that the marks distribution followed the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any large-scale examination indicating no abnormality.

Centre highlighted the key findings from the IIT-Madras to assert that the integrity of the NEET-UG 2024 exam process was uncompromised. The affidavit stated that the department of Higher Education requested IIT-Madras to conduct a detailed data analysis of NEET-UG 2024 results to identify any suspected cases of malpractice and to evaluate the spread of top-performing candidates.

Accordingly, IIT-Madras analysed the top 140000 ranks for both the year 2023 and 2024 to detect any abnormalities. As per the Centre, the analysis aimed to determine if any centres or cities showed signs of undue advantage to a large number of students due to malpractices. However, the report dated July 10 revealed that there were no indications of mass malpractice of any localised set of candidates benefitting unduly. As per the report, the distribution of high marks was consistent across various cities and centres.

"The analysis shows that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores. There is an overall increase in the marks obtained by students, specifically in the range of 550 to 720 (total score). This increase is seen across the cities and centres. This is attributed to a 25% reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and multiple centres, indicating a very low likelihood of malpractice," centre stated in its affidavit.

Centre stated that the IIT-Madras report, endorsed by its director, maintained that the analysis of the 2023 and 2024 NEET-UG data could lead to an inference "with confidence that there has been no abnormality, which has affected the results".

Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the prestigious test, also filed a separate additional affidavit in the top court and said it has carried out an analysis of distribution of marks in NEET-UG 2024 at the national, state, city and centre level.

Supporting the Centre's stand on the matter, NTA said that so far only 47 candidates (17 in Patna and 30 in Godhra) have been suspected of involvement in paper leaks and irregularities relating to the OMR sheets. NTA also affirmed that it would rely on the findings of the IIT-Madras report during the proceedings in this matter.

"This analysis indicates that the distribution of marks is quite normal and there seems to be no extraneous factor, which would influence the distribution of marks," the NTA said in its affidavit, which also gave details about the system in place for ensuring confidential printing of question papers, its transportation and distribution.

Further, the Agency also addressed the video showing a purported leak of the NEET-UG exam paper on Telegram on May 4 and declared it to be fake. "Discussions within the Telegram channel indicate that members identified the video as fake. The timestamp was manipulated to create a false impression of an early leak. Comments and discussions on social media further corroborate that the images in the video were edited, and the date was intentionally modified to suggest a May 4 leak. The screenshots highlight the fabricated nature of the claims made in the video," the NTA affidavit stated.

Meanwhile, the Central Government emphasised in its affidavit that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare oversees the counselling process for UG seats, which will commence in the third week of July 2024. 

It added that if any candidates are found guilty of malpractice, their candidatures will be cancelled during and after then counseling process and the timing of such cancellations will although affect the seat allocation, the vacant seats could still be offered in the subsequent rounds if necessary.

The Centre informed that to strengthen the exam process it has established a high-level committee of experts, headed by K Radhakrishnan, former Chairman of ISRO and Chairman, the Board of Governors, IIT Kanpur. It added that this panel will make recommendations regarding the possible measures that could enhance the transparency and robustness in future examinations conducted by the NTA.

"The committee consists of experts with extensive experience across various fields, demonstrating the necessary domain expertise required for undertaking such an exercise," Centre stated in the affidavit, adding that the committee has also co-opted two more members-professors from IIT-Kanpur.

Underscoring the Government's legislative efforts to ensure integrity in the examination, the Centre stated in the affidavit that the Parliament enacted the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfait Means) Act, 2024, which came into effect on June 21, 2024. It added that this Act provides for stringent punishments for offences related to unfair means in the public examinations, ensuring a robust framework to deter malpractices.

Meanwhile, NTA submitted before the Court about the ongoing consideration regarding the plans of replacing the mode of conduct of the examination from pen and paper mode (OMR-based) to computer-based test (CBT) mode. 

"Further options are also being explored simultaneously so as to perfectly obviate the occurrence of any malpractices that may affect the sanctity and integrity of the exam. In respect to modalities to be followed for the identification of beneficiaries, it is submitted that the investigation by the CBI is already ongoing and the NTA would make inquiries from the city coordinators and other exam functionaries by seeking further information and take appropriate action," it added.

The agency further mentioned that based on the progress of the investigations, as and when the names of suspicious candidates becomes available, it can also initiate an administrative process for debarring such candidates. It also pointed out that not 67 but only 61 candidates scored 720 marks because six of them were given grace marks to compensate for their loss of time. However, in the retest, those six candidates could not score the full marks.