The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the plea seeking cancellation of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test undergraduate exam (NEET UG) held on September 12, 2021 (Saloni v. National Testing Agency).
A Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai deemed the plea to be frivolous and also questioned the advocate for filing the plea, reports Bar and Bench.
“What kind of writs are filed? Lakhs of people have taken these exams. You know that the Court is not going to interfere with an exam where 7 and a half lakh students have taken on the basis of five FIRs, how can the exam be cancelled,” the Court demanded.
The Court was hearing a plea by NEET aspirant Saloni seeking cancellation of the exam and for fresh exam citing alleged instances of cheating, malpractices and question paper leak.
When the matter was taken up for hearing, the Bench straight away expressed its disapproval at the plea.
It also said that it will impose costs on the lawyer for advising the client to file the plea.
“Why should the Petitioner pay? It is the lawyer who gives suggestions of filing such Petitions that under Article 32. When people come to you (lawyer), don’t you say that these will be dismissed with cost? You argue, we’ll deal with this at length and we will deal with you (lawyer) specially,” the Court remarked.
It then initially passed an order imposing costs of ?5 lakh which it said should be recovered from the counsel.
“We will say that the amount be recovered not from the petitioner but from the lawyer for giving him (petitioner) this advice,” the Court said.
Advocate Pradeep Gupta representing the petitioner, however, prayed that costs should not be imposed.
The Court eventually relented and passed an order dismissing the plea but refrained from imposing costs.
“Costs will not be imposed but we will remember you. Next time there is such a case, we will definitely impose costs on you,” the Court cautioned the lawyer.
