The Supreme Court resumed the NEET matter hearing on Monday. Before lunch, NTA Counsel, Solicitor General admitted that wrong question paper booklets were distributed at eight centres across the country, but “the difficulty level is of the same level,” so the NTA deemed it fit to let students continue appearing for the wrong question booklet. The number of candidates who got Canara bank paper are slightly over 3000, NTA Counsel admits.
Advocate Hooda said that 69 students scored above 650 and 241 got above 550. “Their city coordinators are owners of these schools. These are private schools and invigilators are the teachers of these private schools and it cannot be ruled out that there could be a nexus between the coaching centres and the private schools…its completely privatised. In Sikar, there are 48 private schools who are just affiliated by CBSE not CBSE run.”
CJI asks whether this be a “ground to cancel the exam in entirety or to cancel the exam in Sikar?
Moreover, the petitioners’ counsel informed the apex court that NTA admitted to paper leak, dissemination of leaked question paper through WhatsApp, as per PTI. “Statements are at variance. One statement says the leak happened on the 4th night, second statement says it was received on WhatsApp on the 5th morning. Amit Anand’s statements are at variance,” said the CJI, as per LiveLaw.
CJI further said: “We don’t have any material so far to show the leak was so widespread and spread across the country.”
The bench comprising Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra are hearing nearly 40 pleas related to the alleged irregularities on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2024.
CJI has asked four questions to NTA:
- How many distribution centers received Canara Bank papers?
- Among those centers, in how many locations were the correct question booklets (SBI paper) provided instead?
- How many centers were involved in evaluating the Canara Bank papers?
- After the evaluation of Canara Bank papers, how did the candidates perform?
The NEET case will conclude today and will extend until the day ends, according to the Chief Justice of India.