Supreme Court upholds decision to cancel UGC NET 2024 exam, allows re-examination on August 21

the Supreme Court refused to entertain petitions filed by a group of candidates challenging the cancellation of the UGC-NET 2024 exams due to alleged paper leaks. The exam, initially conducted on June 18, was cancelled by the Centre on June 19 after allegations surfaced regarding the integrity of the exam, as per Live Law report.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, along with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, heard the case. The bench stated that it was not inclined to interfere with the decision to cancel the exam and schedule a re-test for August 21, as per the Live Law report.

"At the present stage, the petitioners have challenged the decision... nearly 2 months have lapsed, entertaining the petition would only add uncertainty and result in utter chaos," the bench noted in its order, as quoted in the Live Law report.

The court acknowledged that over 9 lakh candidates had appeared for the UGC-NET exam on June 18. The Centre's decision to cancel the exam was likely influenced by the controversy surrounding the NEET exam and the paper leak allegations related to UGC-NET. The bench emphasized that interfering at this point would only exacerbate the situation, leading to more chaos and uncertainty for students, as per the Live Law report.

"Let there be finality; we are not in a perfect world. Let the exams happen on August 21. Let there be certainty for students," Chief Justice Chandrachud remarked, as quoted by Live Law report.

The court also noted that the challenge to the re-test was brought by only 47 petitioners, despite the fact that over 9 lakh students are expected to take part in the exam, as per the Live Law report.

The Ministry of Education announced the cancellation of the exam on June 19, following concerns over 'compromised integrity' flagged by the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit under the Ministry of Home Affairs, as per Live Law report.