Plea in Supreme Court calls for NEET-UG exam scrapping, CBI probe into irregularities

A plea seeking scrapping of the NEET-UG 2024 exam and an apex court-monitored probe by the CBI or any other independent agency into the alleged irregularities in the test held on May 5, has been filed in the Supreme Court.

20 students who had appeared for the medical entrance exam have filed the petition. They have also sought a direction to the National Testing Agency (NTA) and others to conduct the test afresh.

The apex court, on June 14 heard separate petitions raising grievances over the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate)-2024. 

The court sought responses from the Centre and the NTA on a plea for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into allegations of question paper leak and other irregularities in the exam.

Meanwhile, a fresh plea stated that in view of "rampant irregularities and fraudulent practices", re- examination would only help in short-listing deserving students to get admission in medical institutions.

According to media reports, the plea, drawn by advocate Dheeraj Singh, stated, "Because the sanctity of the examination is questionable in view of the confirmed cases of leakage of question paper, with respect to which FIRs have been lodged and several persons have been arrested, as per the media reports.”

Stating that the result declared by the NTA disclosed that 67 candidates have scored the maximum possible marks 720 out of 720, the plea said that a closer analysis would reveal an extraordinary significant increase of more than 400 per cent in the number of students scoring 620-720 marks.

"The aforesaid material irregularities are required to be investigated thoroughly by CBI or by any other independent agency or committee under the supervision of this court so as to do justice to the large number of meritorious students whose claims have been defeated by systemic failure to ensure conduct of fair examination," it said.

The petition requests the Supreme Court to appoint a committee or independent agency to conduct a post-exam analysis, including academic background checks and forensic examinations, for candidates scoring 620 and above. It also seeks directives for the NTA and others to enhance transparency, fairness, and prevent fraudulent practices, question paper leaks, impersonation, and unfair means in future NEET-UG exams.

It may be mentioned that the Centre and the NTA on June 13 told the top court that they had cancelled the grace marks given to 1,563 candidates who took the examination for admission to MBBS and other such courses.

They will have the option to either take a retest or forgo the compensatory marks awarded to them for the loss of time, the Centre had said.

The examination was held on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates took it. 

There have been allegations of question paper leaks in states like Bihar and the other irregularities in the prestigious exam.