New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday heard one PIL seeking fresh conduct of the medical entrance exam NEET, but several others are lined up in courts highlighting an alleged paper leak, an unusual number of perfect scores and irregularities in its conduct.
At the forefront of the legal battle are students, coaching institute owners as well as doctors, lawyers and RTI activists.
They are seeking reconduct of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET UG 2024) by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the removal of grace marks awarded to more than 1,500 candidates, but have not challenged the examination system or called for it to be scrapped.
In the results declared by the NTA on 4 June, 10 days before the scheduled date, 67 students secured NEET All India Rank 1 with a percentile score of 99.997129.
The grievances highlighted in the PILs pertain to the high number of candidates sharing rank 1, with a total of six students from one centre achieving it, a drastic increase in the cut-off compared to the previous year and alleged malpractices at exam centres.
The Supreme Court heard one such PIL Tuesday but refused to stay the counselling process for successful candidates for admissions to MBBS, BDS and other courses. The PIL will next be heard, along with similar petitions, on 8 July, after the court’s summer vacation.
This particular petition was filed on 1 June by NEET candidate Shivangi Mishra and nine others. It was guided by Dr Vivek Pandey, who is also an RTI activist.
Speaking to ThePrint, Pandey said: “Our case has been accepted by the honourable Supreme Court, and a notice is to be issued to all respondents. The EOU branch of Patna is conducting the main investigation in the NEET 2024 paper leak. Most likely, they will present the probe report at the next hearing.”
The NTA has consistently denied the paper leak allegations.
Another PIL has been filed by Alakh Pandey, founder of coaching institute PhysicsWallah, who has urged the apex court to order an investigation into the allegations of discrepancies in NEET UG 2024. He has the signatures of 20,000 students supporting the PIL.
After the Supreme Court’s hearing, he stated that the issue was not about grace marks.
“The matter was listed for hearing before the NEET results. The students are demanding justification (from the NTA) on the paper leak only, not about grace marks or anything else, because it was listed on 1 June before the results,” Alakh Pandey told the media.
“The Supreme Court has said the sanctity of the exam has been compromised, which means they also feel there have been some issues in the examination and asked NTA to answer this before 8 July. Yet, they have not given any relief on the counselling process,” he added.
Nitin Vijay, a teacher from Kota, the hub for NEET aspirants, has also filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking a re-exam or the removal of grace marks. He has received complaints about the exam from more than 20,000 students, he told the media.
Addressing his students’ questions on Instagram about reconduct of the exam, he noted that the NEET paper leak had happened in the past too.
“The reconduct of medical entrance exam happened in 2015 too, when the court cancelled the AIPMT (All India Pre-Medical Test held that year). There was an issue of a paper leak back then too when 44 students were involved,” said Vijay.
NEET aspirant Janvi Singh is also preparing to file a writ petition in the Supreme Court.
She has flagged the issue of paper leaks, the alleged arbitrary award of grace marks resulting in a record number of full marks being scored, higher cut-offs, and a stark disparity in score-and-rank analysis compared to other years.
“We are seeking a re-evaluation of all OMR sheets and fresh preparation of results or reconduct of the NEET UG 2024 examination. We are also praying for a forensic audit in the evaluation of the OMR sheets and a detailed inquiry into the conduct of the examination, paper leak incidents, allegations of irregularities, and arbitrary award of grace marks in the said exam by an independent body,” a lawyer representing Singh told ThePrint.
‘Multiple petitions a good thing’
The PILs are not only being filed in the Supreme Court but also in various high courts across states.
One such plea has been filed by advocate Tanmoy Chattopadhyay in the Calcutta High Court. On 6 June, the high court sought the response of the NTA through an affidavit within 10 days, addressing the allegations made in the PIL.
The court also asked the NTA to disclose in its affidavit how the reservation policy of the state (West Bengal), as well as the central government, was followed in preparing the merit list for the examination. The outcome of the counselling process shall abide by the result of the writ petition, the high court ordered.
Lawyers involved in these legal battles believe the increasing number of PILs will add weight to the case against NEET UG 2024.
“I would say that multiple petitions being filed before the Supreme Court is a good thing. This indicates that something wrong has transpired, affecting a large number of students across the country. This would enable the Supreme Court to take a comprehensive view of the matter and decide the issue concerning the conduct and results of NEET 2024,” said Aditya Kashyap, one of the lawyers helping file the PILs.
Speaking to ThePrint, Dr Dhruv Chauhan, a member of the Indian Medical Association, expressed faith in the judiciary. “Since all the evidence directly points to irregularities, from alleged leaks to suspicions over 67 candidates scoring 720/720, some concrete results should emerge. We have faith in the judiciary,” he said.
NEET was introduced in 2013 by the Central Board of Secondary Education as an attempt to unify all the medical entrance examinations across the country. It replaced the AIPMT, which too faced allegations of irregularities, and other state-level examinations, and was aimed at establishing a streamlined and transparent admission system.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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