Re-NEET unreasonable, harsh for honest hardworking students! 56 successful candidates move Supreme Court to Stop NTA from cancelling NEET 2024
New Delhi: Amid the ongoing controversy over the alleged irregularities in NEET 2024 conduct this year, another petition has been filed before the Supreme Court wherein over 50 successful Gujarat-based NEET candidates, including several who have been ranked first, have opposed the re-neet and cancelling the results of the NEET-UG 2024 examination. Through the plea, the candidates have moved the apex court seeking a direction to restrain the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) from cancelling the controversy-ridden exam.
According to a recent report by PTI, the candidates have sought a direction from the top court to the Union Education Ministry to probe, identify and take strict action against students and others who indulged in unfair practices like paper leak and impersonation in the NEET-UG exam conducted on May 5 this year.
The fresh plea by 56 students through lawyer Devendra Singh has been filed days before a top court bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud is scheduled to hear as many as 26 petitions seeking reliefs including re-test and probe into the conduct of the examination plagued by allegations of malpractices.
"The Hon'ble court may further direct the respondents (Centre and the NTA) not to re-conduct NEET-UG ... as that would not only be unreasonable and harsh for the honest and hardworking students but also would lead to the infringement of the Right to Education and therefore violative of Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution," the plea said, quotes PTI.
The plea sought a direction to the Centre and the NTA to identify and punish the examinees who adopted unfair means, identify the centres and take appropriate action where any "compromise to the established guidelines for NEET-UG 2024 examinations has been done."
The Petitioners are young students around 17-18 years of age, and to achieve their dream of becoming a doctor, they have given their 100 per cent and have cleared the exam after consistent hard work of more than 3-4 years, it said.
However, the continuous coverage of news regarding the cancellation of the exam and possibility of a re-test for all is creating mental pressure and causing unnecessary stress, it said.
If the re-test happens as a result of "hype created due to the misleading coverage by media", the honest successful students will have to face hardship, it added.
Singla, the lead petitioner, ranked 778 in the merit list of NEET-UG 2024, the plea said, adding, "He has always been an outstanding student who in class 12th has topped in his school with 96.60%. It is further stated that amongst the other co-petitioners, there are students who have scored even the 1st Rank...".
According to the cause list for July 8 uploaded on the apex court's website, the batch of 26 petitions would come up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
NEET Controversy
This year's NEET UG 2024 exam was mired in controversies after a paper leak scam came to light. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that around 13 people, including four examinees and their family members, were arrested in Bihar for their alleged involvement in the paper leak of the NEET-UG exam. Patna police sources had previously claimed that the NEET-UG question papers along with their answers were provided to around 20 aspirants a day before the date of the exam i.e. May 5, 2024.
Then, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police, which took over the investigation, revealed that the brokers involved in the NEET paper leak scam took between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh from each of the medical aspirants in exchange for giving them the question paper of the NEET UG 2024 question paper ahead of the examination.
Multiple pleas have been filed before the High Courts and the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into the alleged paper leak scam. Some of the pleas demanded the scrapping of the NEET UG 2024 exam and holding a retest.
Meanwhile, during the case proceedings, NTA earlier decided to withdraw the grace marks awarded to 1563 candidates and hold an optional retest for those candidates. Those who did not opt for the retest were allowed to retain their original marks, without the grace marks.
The matter is now being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Central Government on June 22, 2024, handed over the charge of investigating in the alleged irregularities in the NEET UG 2024 examination to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
"Certain cases of alleged irregularities / cheating / impersonation / malpractices have been reported. For transparency on the conduct of the examination process, the Ministry of Education, Government of India after a review has decided to entrust the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a comprehensive investigation," the Ministry of Education stated in a release.
Earlier, while considering the NEET-related pleas, the Supreme Court had refused to defer the counselling/seat allotment process scheduled to commence on July 6. However, the bench had orally observed that the admissions would be subject to the final outcome of the petitions and if the exams were set aside, the counselling would get invalidated consequentially.
The Top Court had also expressed its concern over the alleged discrepancies in the NEET UG 2024 exam. The Court had noted that even '0.001& negligence' in conducting the NEET-UG 2024 exams would be looked into with all seriousness considering the immense labor put in by the candidates for the prestigious examination.
Recently two candidates Kritika Garg and Priyanjali Garg approached the Apex Court opposing the proposal to cancel the NEET exam and hold a retest. Hailing from Meerut, these candidates secured Rs 705 and 690 marks respectively.
Approaching the Apex Court bench, they argued that students who have prepared for years should not be put to the trouble of appearing in the exam again. These applicants further contended that holding a retest for the NEET UG 2024 exam would not only be "unfair" to most students but would also cause hardship to their families.
NEET-UG retest result
The Centre and the NTA had, 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 Monday after issuing the results of the re-test held on June 23.
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 held on May 5. It has been alleged that grace marks contributed to 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 Monday.
