SC issues notice to government, NTA on pleas seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024: Top developments

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought response from the Central government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) on pleas seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 exam.
It also stayed ongoing proceedings on several petitions regarding the medical exam that were being considered by various high courts across the country. The petitions are scheduled to be heard on July 8.
This came after the education ministry on Wednesday decided to cancel the UGC-NET exam "on the basis of inputs from Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, prima-facie indicating that the integrity of the examination may have been compromised."


The SC bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti have stayed some of the pleas related to the medical exam that were being heard in several high courts across the country.The matter will be heard on July 8.
Notices have been issued to the concerned parties to respond to four distinct pleas filed by the NTA. These pleas request the transfer of several pending petitions, including those related to alleged paper leaks, from the high courts to the Supreme Court.
"Issue notice, returnable on July 8," the bench said.
"In the meantime, further proceedings before the high courts shall remain stayed", it added.

Counselling process for NEET-UG 2024, which is scheduled to start from July 6, has not been stayed.
"All this has been argued from day one and they (some petitioners) have been wanting stay of counselling. We have denied that," the bench said.
"Ultimately, if all of you succeed, everything will go. The examination goes and the counselling will also go," it added.

While hearing the petitions, an attorney informed the bench that an individual has been arrested in Bihar in connection with the investigation into suspected irregularities in the examination.
It further mentioned that FIRs have been filed in Bihar and Gujarat, suggesting that the police should provide a status report on their investigations into these cases.

The education ministry on Wednesday asked for a detailed report from the Bihar Police's economic offences unit regarding purported irregularities in the NEET (UG) 2024 exam held in Patna.
Drawing link between RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Sikandar Yadvendu, who was arrested in connection with the NEET question paper leak, Bihar's deputy chief minister Vijay Kumar Sinha said on Wednesday that the latter is closely related to Pritam Kumar, the personal secretary of the former.
“Sikandar Yadvendu is a close relative of Tejashwi Yadav's PS Pritam Kumar. An NHAI guest house was booked for Sikandar's sister Reena Yadav and son Anurag Yadav to stay on May 4. A phone number and 'Mantri Ji' were mentioned in the diary of the NHAI guest house. The investigating agency is making efforts to know the identity of this Mantri Ji,” Sinha said.

In a press release on Wednesday, the education ministry said, "In the matter pertaining to the NEET(UG) Examination-2024, the issue related to grace marks has already been fully addressed. As regards certain irregularities alleged in the conduct of the examination in Patna, a detailed report has been sought from the Economic Offences Unit, Bihar Police. Government will take further action, on receipt of this report."
This came after NTA decided to retract grace marks awarded to 1,563 students. It gave the aspirants the option to take a re-test.
The NEET (UG) 2024 exam, conducted by the NTA on May 5 at 4,750 centers, saw about 24 lakh candidates participating. Originally slated for June 14, the results were instead released on June 4, potentially due to the swift completion of answer sheet evaluations.
Several petitions were filed, including by Alakh Pandey -- CEO of the EdTech company 'Physics Wallah', challenging NTA's purported random allocation of grace marks to over 1,500 NEET-UG 2024 candidates.