NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday in its order refused to defer the counselling date, which is to kickstart on July 6, of the NEET-UG 2024 examination, after noting that it is not an "open and shut" process.
The apex court issued notices to the National Testing Agency (NTA), Centre and others and sought their respective replies after hearing a petition seeking cancellation of the exam over the alleged irregularities in holding it on May 5.
A two-judge vacation bench of the top court, led by Justice Vikram Nath and Justice SVN Bhatti was hearing on Friday three pleas with respect to the alleged irregularities in the NEET UG exam.
The three pleas were filed by three different individuals -- Hiiten Singh Kashyap, Floral Vyas and Sunil Jain -- seeking CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) investigation into the alleged paper leak, cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 exam and counselling and similar other prayer respectively.
During the course of the hearing on Friday, a lawyer for one of the petitioners requested the top court that the counselling from July 6 be postponed, as the Supreme Court had already scheduled to hear the batch of petitions challenging the NEET-UG exam on July 8.
But the apex court refused to defer the counselling.
"Counselling is not open and shut. It is a process. That process commences on 6th (July). It may be for four days or five days, or a week. But, afterwards, within that week, applicants have any number of options to amend/modify etc. we are allowing time not to be lost, either by this side or that side," the top court said in the order.
Students and various educational institutions had moved the Supreme Court and various State High Courts after the prestigious NEET-UG examination mired into alleged paper leak, irregularities, malpractices and others seeking various directions and orders to NTA.
Yesterday, the top court stayed the proceedings of pleas filed before various State High Courts in 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 National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET) exam.
All the pleas heard today has been tagged along with the pending pleas already filed before it for further hearing to July 8, when the SC would be open, over almost 45 days off, after summer vacations.
There are more than 35 petitions, including a fresh petition filed by a group of 20 students, who had appeared in the medical entrance exam, in the Supreme Court, seeking a direction for scrapping of the NEET-UG 2024 exam and an apex court-monitored probe by the CBI or any other independent agency into the alleged irregularities in the test held on May 5.
Recently, the NTA had told the apex court that scorecards of 1563 candidates who "got grace marks" in the NEET-UG 2024, will be cancelled and the students will have the option to reappear for the exam.
NTA had also further elaborated to the apex court that a committee has been constituted to review the results of over these 1,563 candidates who were awarded “grace marks” to compensate for the loss of time suffered while appearing for the exam.
