NEET 2024 Hearing Live: SC directs NTA to publish centre and city-wise results, next hearing on Monday

The Apex Court had stated that prima facie it had appeared that the question paper leak was limited to Patna and Hazaribagh, but the same cannot be said for Godhra in Gujarat.

SC has adjourned the hearing on NEET UG 2024 until July 22.

The Supreme Court has asked the NTA to ensure the identities of candidates is not disclosed while declaring centre-wise results.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta requested that exam centres should not be revealed, but the court said the centre-wise results would reveal the pattern of the marks.

The CJI said that the paper leak in Patna and Hazaribagh is an acknowledged fact, as the paper was available before the exam.

“…let us see centre-wise what is the marks pattern. In the end of it if petitioners fail, we will have satisfaction,” the Chief Justice said.

The Supreme Court has asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to publish the city—and centre-wise results of the NEET UG by 12 noon on Saturday, ensuring that the identity of the candidates is not revealed. The hearing has been adjourned until Monday.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live: The undergraduate medical counselling will begin on July 24, the NTA has informed the Supreme Court.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live: In Hazaribagh, a total of 2,736 appeared for NEET UG and of them, 80 have qualified.

The Solicitor General said that in 2023, of the first 60,000 students, 1,993 were from Patna, but the number has come down to 1561. This time there were 7 centres in Patna. When asked, the NTA could not provide the number of this year's candidates from Patna right away.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live: The CJI asked if the Patna breach was linked to Hazaribagh, to which the Solicitor replied it was the same gang.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live: Senior Advocate Hooda said the conspiracy was hatched a month before when College Kaka, a coaching agency, said that the NEET paper will be leaked. This letter of April 3 has now been forwarded by NTA to CBI for further investigation.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live: The CJI said in Godhra, there was no wrongdoing as it was not students memorising but the superintendent trying to help them

Adv. Hooda said the possibility cannot be ruled out that he had the solved paper.

“It appears Godhra is not an example of widespread leak as there is no evidence that the scheme went through,” the CJI said.

SG: In Godhra, Tushar Bhatt, the centre superintendent, told students he would fill the blanks on OMR sheets. But before this could be done, the DM got to know and he was arrested.

Adv. Hooda: Here, the Hon'ble court is considering whether the leak is widespread or not. It is an indicator that Mr Tushar Bhat had the answers beforehand.

The SG said Bhat's representation is that he would have 3 hours before he seals the answers.

CJI: The whole hypothesis that the questions were solved in 45 minutes seems far-fetched.

SG: They (solvers) ensure the paper is not leaked and gave it to parents as otherwise paper will get cancelled.

CJI:What worries us is if the time gap is of 3 days, obviously the leak could be widespread

The SG said the breach took place between 8.02 am to 9.23 am on the day of the exam.

CJI: According to you, students got the paper after 10 am...is it possible that in 45 minutes between 9.30 and 12.15 they will have problem solvers to solve all 180 questions? The whole hypothesis seems far-fetched.

The SG said 7 solvers bifurcated questions among them.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live Updates: Senior Advocate Hooda argued that the paper was leaked before it was kept at banks while it was in the hands of the courier company transporting it.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live Updates: Senior Advocate Hooda countered the NTA's argument about the edited video, saying the paper was shown on Telegram on May 4.

“On telegram, if I want to edit, I can swap document but time cannot be changed…So that is impossible,” he said.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live Updates: On the NEET question paper getting leaked on social media platforms such as Telegram, the Chief Justice of India commented that it should be kept in mind that the idea of someone doing this is not to make a national charade of NEET but for money.

The Solicitor General argued that the Telegram post was an edited video.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live Updates: The CJI asked Senior Advocate Hooda how he formulated the submission that the leak was widespread. He replied that NTA had a systemic failure in conducting the exam. The failure is multidimensional, and the transportation of question papers was compromised.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live Updates: Senior Advocate Hooda said that in the case of Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, the trunk was carried in an e-rickshaw and received by the principal of Oasis School, where irregularities were found.

The NTA affidavit does not record this said the trunks were dispatched by a reputed company, he added.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live Updates: The Solicitor General said the CBI investigated the entire chain of the question papers' transportation from the printer to exam centres. GPS surveillance and digital lockers were used during transportation, and there was a seven-layer safety feature, he said.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live Updates: Senior Advocate Hooda, appearing for the petitioners, said there is a five-fold jump in the number of top scores. Asked if this could be a reason to say the paper was leaked, the senior advocate said this is one of the red flags.

In 2022, 49,134 got marks in the range of 550-720 and it went up to 65,520 in 2023 and over 1,42,000 in 2024.

The court was told that around 17.64 lakh candidates took the test in 2022, 20.38 lakh in 2023, and 23.33 lakh in 2024.

As opposed to 33 per cent increase in the number of candidates, the number of top scorers has gone up by nearly over 70,000.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live Updates: A total of 15,085 candidates registered for the exam between April 9-10 during the reopened window, the NTA has informed.

The Solicitor General Tushar Mehra said the window was reopened following representations from several students. Only 44 out of the new applicants are eligible for admission, he added.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live Updates: The Supreme Court hearing of the NEET UG re test and result cancellation pleas have resumed.

SC had said that any order for conducting the NEET-UG 2024 afresh has to be on the concrete footing that the sanctity of the entire exam was affected. Read details here.

NEET UG 2024 Hearing Live Updates: Get the latest updates on the Education Portal of HT