NEET Paper Leak Row: SC Tells NTA Even 0.001% Negligence Should Be Thoroughly Dealt With

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said even if there was “0.001 per cent negligence” on the part of anyone in the conduct of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission into medical colleges, it should be thoroughly dealt with.

Observing that students have to labour hard while preparing for these examinations, the apex court said the litigation pertaining to the NEET-Undergraduate-2024 examination ought not be treated as adversarial.

“Even if there is 0.001 per cent negligence on the part of anyone, it should be thoroughly dealt with,” a vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti told the advocates appearing for the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA).

The NTA conducts the all-India pre-medical entrance test.

The bench was hearing two separate petitions raising grievances, including on grace marks given to students in the examination held on May 5.

“As an agency which is conducting the examination, you must act fair. If there is a mistake, say yes, this is a mistake, and this is the action we are going to take. At least that inspires confidence in your performance,” the bench told the NTA.

The Supreme Court also observed that the agency shouldn’t forget the efforts students put in to prepare for one of the toughest entrance exams in the country

“Imagine a person who has played fraud on the system becomes a doctor, he is more deleterious to the society. Children study hard to get through NEET” it added.

Last week, the NTA told the Supreme Court that grace marks given to 1,563 candidates in the NEET-UG exam would be scrapped and the candidates had the option of taking the exam again on June 23. The results of the re-test will be declared before June 30, the top court was told.

If any of these candidates chose to not take the re-test, their earlier score would be reinstated without the extra marks.

Results for the medical entrance examination, which was taken by 24 lakh students on May 5, were declared on June 4. Allegations of an exam paper leak soon surfaced. As many as 67 students got a perfect score of 720/720.

The next hearing in the case will be held on July 8.

Stressing on timely action by the authority, the top court said the pleas would come up for hearing on July 8 along with other pending petitions, including those which have sought a direction to conduct the exam afresh.

It said the NTA and the Centre would file their responses on these fresh petitions within two weeks.