New Delhi- The Supreme Court on Friday said it cannot order holding of NEET-UG 24 afresh as no sufficient material is on record at present to indicate a systemic leak or malpractice compromising the integrity of the examination.
It also expanded the remit of the Centre-appointed panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan constituted to review the functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which holds the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG), and recommend examination reforms.
The top court said since the remit of the panel has been expanded, the committee would submit its report by September 30 on various measures to rectify deficiencies in the examination system.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra gave detailed reasons for its July 23 order refusing to cancel the controversy-ridden NEET-UG 24 examination.
“….sufficient material is not on record at present which indicates a systemic leak or systemic malpractice of other forms. The material on record does not, at present, substantiate the allegation that there has been a widespread malpractice which compromised the integrity of the exam. To the contrary, an assessment of the data indicates that there are no deviations which indicate that systemic cheating has taken place,” the court said in a detailed order.
CJI Chandrachud, writing on behalf of the bench, said the information before the court at this stage does not show that the question paper was disseminated widely using social media or the internet, or that the answers were being communicated to students using sophisticated electronic means which may prove difficult to trace.
“The students who were beneficiaries of the leak at Hazaribagh and Patna are capable of being identified. The CBI investigation reveals the number of students who are the beneficiaries of the malpractice at Hazaribagh and Patna at this stage. This leads us to conclude that it is possible to separate the beneficiaries of malpractice or fraud from the honest students. This being the case, the court cannot direct a re-exam,” the bench said.
The bench said the purpose of assessing whether the sanctity of the exam has been vitiated at a systemic level was to facilitate and encourage a proportional response.
“If it is possible to separate the tainted candidates from the untainted ones, there would be no justification to cancel the exam. This is because honest candidates would be made to suffer without reason due to the actions of some unscrupulous candidates. It is also important for the response to malpractice to be proportionate. Ordering a re-test would disrupt the academic schedule for the year,” it said.
The CJI, in the 63-page detailed order, was also critical of the conduct of the NTA.
The order said while the various issues the court dealt with do not lead to the conclusion that the integrity of the NEET was vitiated at a systemic level, “the manner in which NTA has organised the exam this year gives rise to serious concerns.”
It said a body such as the NTA, which is entrusted with the immense responsibility of conducting highly important competitive exams, cannot afford a misstep, take an incorrect decision, and amend it at a later stage.
“All decisions must be well-considered, with due regard to the importance of the decision. Flipflops are an anathema to fairness,” the bench said.
The bench said it is cognizant of the fact that national-level exams with participation of tens of lakhs of students require immense resources, coordination, and planning.
“But that is precisely the reason for the existence of a body such as NTA. It is no excuse to say that the exam is conducted in myriad centres or that a large number of aspirants appear for the exam. NTA has sufficient resources at its disposal. It has adequate funding, time, and opportunities to organise exams such as the NEET without lapses of the kind that occurred this year,” it said.
The bench flagged multiple lapses on the part of the NTA, including security breach at an examination centre in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, where the rear door of the strongroom was opened and unauthorised people were permitted to access the question papers, transport of question papers by e-rickshaws and wrong distribution of question papers among candidates.
It said when the results were declared, 67 aspirants had clinched a perfect score of 720/720. After the removal of compensatory marks awarded to them and the conduct of a re-test for 1563 candidates, the number of aspirants who had obtained full marks dropped to 61, and later to 17 following the recomputation of marks due to revision of the answer key, it said.
“The intervention of the Court, reports by the media, and representations by candidates ensured that these changes were made in the interests of fairness and justice. However, the system adopted by NTA should be such that just outcomes are reached even when these external catalysts are not present. The system must be such as to inspire public confidence,” the order said.
The top court directed the NTA to ensure that all concerns highlighted by the court in its judgment are addressed and requested the seven-member committee headed by former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan to keep these issues in mind while making its recommendations.
Over 23 lakh students took the NEET-UG 2024 held on May 5 for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses.
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