Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday addressed the ongoing controversy surrounding alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 medical entrance exam, observing that individuals leaking exam question papers for profit are unlikely to distribute them on a mass scale. This remark was made during a pivotal hearing on petitions concerning the alleged paper leak.
A bench consisting of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra began hearing the case today. Senior advocate Narendra Hooda, representing the petitioners, argued that the leaked NEET-UG 2024 paper was disseminated on May 3, with solved papers circulating by May 4. He presented Telegram videos as evidence of the leak.
However, the National Testing Agency (NTA) contested this claim, stating, “Our stand is that it is a doctored video.” The Solicitor General, representing the Centre, supported the NTA’s stance, noting that Telegram has an “inbuilt feature that if there is a change, it will be reflected,” indicating that the exam paper was circulated after the exam had commenced.
During the proceedings, the Supreme Court emphasized that a re-examination could only be justified if there was concrete evidence that the integrity of the NEET-UG 2024 had been compromised on a large scale. The Court also explored the timeline of the alleged breach.
The Solicitor General explained that the breach occurred at a specific exam center, where an individual allegedly entered between 8:02 am and 9:23 am, photographed the exam paper, and left. Chief Justice Chandrachud highlighted the improbability of such a rapid dissemination of solutions, noting that students received the papers at 10:15 am and questioning the feasibility of solving and distributing 180 questions within such a short time frame.
“What is worrying us is, how much was the period between the breach and the exam? If the time period is 3 days, obviously there is a greater danger. Does somebody pay 75,000 for 45 minutes?” Chief Justice Chandrachud queried, underscoring the need for a thorough investigation into the extent and impact of the breach before considering a re-examination.
