The three-judge bench, which includes Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra is expected to announce the final verdict tomorrow, July 23 on a series of petitions seeking cancellation, retest, and a court-supervised probe into alleged misconduct in the NEET-UG 2024 exam, which was held on May 5. Here is a timeline of events related to the NEET UG 2024 Supreme Court hearings:
July 22:
In the latest SC hearing, the top court addressed the issue of the correct response to physics Q 19. The bench requested an expert opinion from IIT Delhi and has instructed the Director to form a committee of three experts in the field. The Director’s expert team has been tasked to create an opinion on the proper answer and submit it to the registrar by July 23 at noon. He also highlighted that more than four lakh students have benefited from option two being marked as correct. Therefore, if choice two is suddenly deemed incorrect, 4.20 lakh students would forfeit four marks in addition to receiving a single negative mark. Furthermore, the CJI observed that the paper leak likely occurred on or before May 4.
July 18:
During the hearing , the CJI presented two scenarios for the NEET UG paper leak: before May 3, when the papers were in bank custody, or on May 5, when the papers had left the banks. The CJI enquired into the number of students who changed examination centres, as well as the centre allocation procedure. The Supreme Court subsequently directed the NTA to disclose the NEET UG results according to centre and state by on July 20, 2024, in response to petitioners’ pleas for more transparency. In addition, the Supreme Court instructed the Bihar police and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to submit their inquiry reports.
July 11:
CJI Chandrachud’s bench adjourned the hearing after the petitioners’ counsel requested more time to analyse affidavits from the Centre and NTA. The bench further observed that, in accordance with earlier directives, the CBI has turned in its investigative status report.
July 8:
The court reviewed the NEET-UG 2024 irregularity controversy and showed reluctance to order a large-scale retest owing to logistics and budgetary considerations. Recognising the question paper leak, the SC inquired about the number of beneficiaries and the steps taken against them.
June 21:
On June 21, the Supreme Court rejected the petition to halt the NEET-UG 2024 counselling process. The NTA was notified and additional pleas were tagged with outstanding petitions.
June 18:
The Supreme Court sent a notice to the NTA, requesting a response to the complaints about purported document leaks and misconduct. The court emphasised the necessity of addressing any negligent conduct, noting that even a 0.001% negligence should be thoroughly dealt with.
The National Eligibility and Entrance Test (UG) 2024, administered by the NTA, was held on May 5, 2024 across over 4,000 centres throughout 571 cities for nearly 24 lakh applicants. A retest for 1,563 applicants was held on June 23, with 813 candidates taking the exam. The regular NEET UG results were released on June 4, followed by revised results on June 30.
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