NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on July 8 a batch of petitions challenging the irregularities, paper leak, and other issues in the NEET-UG examination.
The court is seeking various directions, including a CBI probe and for the exam to be held afresh, as per the SC's cause list for July 8 uploaded on the apex court's website.
A three-judge bench of the top court, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and including Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, is slated to hear around 26 petitions on July 8, Monday.
The apex court will also reopen on July 8 after more than one-and-a-half months of summer vacation, which started after May 20. During this period, only important cases were taken up for hearing by vacation bench judges of the top court.
There are more than 50 petitions filed in the case, including those by students and various educational institutions.
A group of 20 students who had appeared in the medical entrance exam are seeking a direction to scrap the NEET-UG 2024 exam and an apex court-monitored probe by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) or any other independent agency into the alleged irregularities in the test held on May 5.
It is to be noted that the NEET-UG examination, conducted by the NTA, is the process for getting admitted into MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
A batch of petitions was filed by a group of 10 students who had appeared for the exam, seeking directions to the CBI and the ED to investigate the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG held on May 5.
Similarly, 5 NEET-UG candidates also moved the Supreme Court against Re-NEET. The petitioners opposed the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 test; instead of a re-exam, they proposed a re-evaluation of all OMR sheets to address complaints of rank inflation and tampering.
On June 22, the Supreme Court refused to defer the counselling date, which is to start on July 6, for the NEET-UG 2024 examination, after noting that it is not an "open and shut" process. It said so after hearing a batch of pleas.
One of the petitioners, Sabareesh Rajan, who had taken the medical entrance exam, alleged that his OMR sheet was swapped. Rajan had moved the apex court seeking its direction for judicial intervention into the alleged paper leak, award of grace marks against the time loss, and irregularities that occurred during the conduct of the NEET-UG examination.
In another development, the top court had earlier stayed the proceedings on the batch of pleas filed before various state high courts on the same issue, after hearing the plea filed by the NTA and issued notice on the agency's plea in connection with this year's NEET-UG exam.
The NTA had told the apex court that the scorecards of 1,563 candidates who "got grace marks" in the NEET-UG 2024 would be cancelled and the students would have the option to reappear for the exam.
The NTA had also further elaborated to the apex court that a committee has been constituted to review the results of these 1,563 candidates who were awarded “grace marks” to compensate for the loss of time suffered while appearing for the exam.
