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Supreme Court stays proceedings in HCs on scrapping NEET
The NTA advocate requested a stay on high court proceedings, saying some courts continue to pass orders despite being informed of the Supreme Court proceedings.
The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed proceedings before three high courts hearing petitions challenging the conduct of the National Eligibility Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 and seeking an independent probe into alleged malpractices involving a paper leak and award of grace marks.
A vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti issued notice on four transfer petitions filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), the body that conducts NEET-UG, and 11 other petitions raising similar grievances. The matter was posted along with a batch of pending cases on the same issue coming up for hearing on July 8.
The petitioners alleged malpractices including a paper leak, manipulation of examination centres, and arbitrary selection of 1,563 students for grace marks following the May 5 NEET-UG exam for admission to MBBS courses. The court refused to stay counselling, indicating that if the petitioners establish their case, the entire examination, including counselling, will be set aside.
The four transfer petitions related to two proceedings before Calcutta high court and one each before the high courts of Rajasthan and the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court. Issuing notice to the petitioners in each of the petitions along with other respondents including Centre and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the court said, “In the meantime, further proceedings before the HC shall remain stayed.”
The court was initially reluctant to grant a stay as it observed, “Why do you (NTA) require stay. What happens is that the HC may be considering individual cases of candidates which may include request for examination sheet, etc.” The court recalled coming across a recent instance in Lucknow where petitioners had forged documents to get answer sheets and later ran away.
“You can inform the HC of our order,” the top court suggested advocate Vardhman Kaushik appearing for NTA.
The NTA advocate requested a stay on high court proceedings, saying some courts are continuing to pass orders despite being informed of the Supreme Court proceedings. Among the 11 petitions, one candidate from Meghalaya complained of losing 40-45 minutes during the exam without being awarded grace marks. Another questioned the criteria behind NTA’s decision, since withdrawn, to award grace marks to 1,563 candidates.
Coaching institute Unacademy filed a PIL seeking an independent committee to scrutinise irregularities, similar to the expert panel formed in the Adani-Hindenburg case. The Centre objected to coaching institutes as petitioners, but the bench noted their livelihood depends on the students.
Petitioners sought criteria for selecting grace mark recipients, the merit list of all candidates, and a court-monitored CBI probe. The bench denied a stay of counselling, saying everything must go if petitioners succeed. It noted everyone wants media attention by making identical arguments.
Earlier, the bench told NTA that even 0.01% negligence must be dealt with, as a doctor admitted through fraud is “deleterious” to society. NEET has been shrouded in controversy amid allegations of question paper and OMR sheet irregularities, arrests over a paper leak, and a racket supplying answers.
In all, 2.4 million students took the May 5 NEET-UG exam at 4,750 centers across 571 cities worldwide.
