Supreme Court Declines To Stay NEET Counselling Second Time, Issues Notice To NTA

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has once again declined to stay NEET-UG 2024 counselling amid a massive row over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the medical entrance exam. The apex court has issued a notice to the National Testing Agency (NTA).

The Supreme Court has tagged the fresh pleas along with pending petitions and posted them for hearing on July 8, Hindustan Times reported.

On Thursday, the apex court stayed proceedings before three high courts hearing petitions challenging the conduct of the National Eligibility Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 and seeking an independent probe into alleged malpractices involving a paper leak and award of grace marks. A vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti issued notice on four transfer petitions filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), the body that conducts NEET-UG, and 11 other petitions raising similar grievances. The matter was posted along with a batch of pending cases on the same issue coming up for hearing on July 8.

Last week, the court refused to stay the counselling, observing that even a minor negligence needed to be dealt with thoroughly “If there is 0.001% negligence on the part of anyone it should be thoroughly dealt with,” the court had said.

The exam was conducted on May 5. The results came out earlier this month.

After around over 60 students scored full marks in the NEET exam, which is considered one of the toughest exams in the country, medical aspirants claimed there were irregularities in the conduct of the entrance test.