Legally Speaking | The never-ending controversy of NEET 2024

Many students spend years preparing for the exam. The 24 lakh candidates are competing to secure admission in only 1.08 lakh seats

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) or the examination touted to determine the fate of about 24 lakh students across the country has been mired in controversy. This year the examination was plagued with multiple controversies, be it paper leaks, tampered OMR sheets, distribution of wrong question papers, statistically impossible scores and an unprecedented high score.

A protest being held over the alleged irregularities in NEET 2024 at Jantar Mantar on Monday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)(HT_PRINT)

On May 5, NEET was held across the country and roughly 24 lakh students appeared in it. As per reports, a day before the examination on May 4, the paper was leaked, and a group of problem solvers were tasked with solving the paper and aiding four candidates in preparing for the exam. During the investigation, the Bihar police claimed it had procured confession letters from candidates stating that the paper they were shown on the 4th was the same as the NEET question paper on May 5.

On the day of the exam itself, social media was abuzz with allegations of paper leaks. The Gujarat District Education Department of Panchmahal district raided a NEET UG exam centre at Jai Jalaram School in Godhra, Gujarat and seized a list of students from a schoolteacher who had allegedly told the students to only attempt questions they were confident about and he would complete the remainder. An FIR was registered by the Gujarat police.

The National Testing Agency, the body responsible for conducting the examination, was quick to rubbish claims of paper leak and explained the social media videos of students leaving the hall being a result of the invigilator distributing the English Language paper instead of Hindi. It ensured that the integrity of the examination process remained intact and even declared that the students who were given the wrong paper were being given a retest on the same day.

On May 17, Vanshika Yadav moved the Supreme Court asking for a fresh NEET-UG examination, on the ground that the paper leaks are in violation of Article 14 and give an unfair advantage to a select group of students. As an interim prayer, the Petitioner sought a stay on the declaration of results. The Supreme Court refused to grant the stay but issued notice to the State to hear the matter in July.

The results were declared on June 4, 10 days before the scheduled date. Further, a record 67 students scored the perfect score of 720. In 2023, only two students had got the perfect score. Several questions were raised about the sudden surge in the candidates getting the perfect score. It was found that 6 of the students who got the perfect score had seat numbers in the same sequence and were from Haryana. Some results were also statistically impossible considering negative marking.

On June 6, the NTA issued a three-page press release addressing the controversial results and paper leak allegations. It explained the statistically impossible scores and high marks on account of grace marks allocated for loss of time to certain candidates. It also categorically ruled out any paper leaks and stated isolated acts of unfair means were being dealt in accordance with the law.

A few days later, on June 11, several petitions challenging the NEET exams came up before a vacation bench of the Supreme Court. All the matters were directed to be tagged together and the Court asked the NTA to respond. Justice Amanullah stated that “Sanctity has been affected, so we need answers.”

All NEET matters were adjourned to July 8.

Finally, on June 24, amid public outcry, all the investigation into the allegations of the paper leak was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which has since then made a spate of arrests and raids across the country.

On July 8, a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, began hearing the multiple petitions on the NEET controversy. Petitions have also been filed praying that the NEET is not conducted again.

The Court at the outset requested all parties not to treat the proceedings as adversarial and work together to arrive at a solution which would benefit all the students. He observed, “One thing which is very clear is that the leak has taken place. That the sanctity of the exam has been breached is beyond doubt. The question is how widespread is the leak," ”. After hearing the matter for some time, the Court framed three main issues which needed to be resolved:

(i)  Whether the alleged breach took place at a systemic level;

(ii)  Whether the breach is of a nature which affects the integrity of the entire examination process; and

(iii)  Whether it is possible to segregate the beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students.

It then proceeded to note that factual clarity was needed on issues like when the leak was known, where the leak happened, the manner of the leak, duration of the leak, a chain of custody of the paper, what was leaked and sought a status report from the CBI. It also directed the NTA to shed light on the steps taken to identify where the leak took place, and the identification of beneficiaries, among others.

Regarding the various petitions, it appointed advocates Sumit Kumar Sharma and Shwetank Sailakwal as the nodal counsel and asked them to file a common submission not exceeding 10 pages on why re-testing was the only solution.

The CBI, Centre and NTA were directed to file their affidavits by 5 PM on 10th July 2024 and the matter was listed for July 11, 2024.

On July 10, both the Union and NTA denied any systemic failings. The Union government in its affidavit relied on the analysis of the results by the Director of IIT, Madras, which concluded that there was no indication of malpractice or abnormal scores. The sudden increase in marks obtained was attributed to the 25% reduction in syllabus.

It also noted that the high-ranking students were from across the country and not isolated to a few centres. The NTA maintained in its affidavit that the integrity of the examinations was not compromised and isolated instances of leaks were being dealt in accordance with law. It also stated that a re-test would be akin to punishing innocent meritorious students for the fault of a few.

On July 11, several petitioners mentioned they had not received the affidavit and sought time to rebut the same. Taking note of the personal difficulty of the ASG and counsel for NTA and Court holiday on account of Moharram, the Court adjourned the matter to 18th July. Meanwhile, the CBI has also placed a status report on the investigation before the Court in a sealed cover.

The impact

The outcome of the proceedings impacts not only the 24 lakh candidates but their families and future aspirants as well. Medical entrances are highly competitive in India. Many students spend years preparing for the exam. The 24 lakh candidates are competing to secure admission in only 1.08 lakh seats of which only 56,000 are seats in Government hospitals. This has led to an influx of private coaching institutions charging mammoth fees. When NEET was introduced in 2013, it faced severe criticism and legal challenges. Among, the several criticisms, one was that it made medical education inaccessible for the poor and marginalised who had studied in State boards and could not afford expensive private coaching. The highly competitive examination and pressure on the students are attributed as one of the primary causes of suicide among NEET aspirants.

In such a context, the examination process not only needs to be fair but appear to be fair to assure all the students that all their efforts will not go in vain.

Parijata Bharadwaj, a lawyer and researcher based in New Delhi, co-founded the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group that offered legal services to adivasis in Chhattisgarh. The views expressed are personal.