NEET UG 2024 Result row: Supreme Court issues notice to NTA over alleged irregularities, paper leak concerns

NEET UG 2024 Result row: In response to allegations of irregularities and concerns over paper leaks in the NEET UG 2024 Result row, the Supreme Court of India issued a notice to the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday, June 14, addressing a batch of petitions.

Several petitions were filed before the Supreme Court and in seven high courts seeking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe after the declaration of the result.

The apex court also tagged and posted the pleas for hearing with similar petitions for July 8, when the top court will resume after the summer vacation. Besides, the court sought responses from the Centre.

On Friday, a panel comprising Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta presided over the Supreme Court's hearing of the NEET UG result. The PIL was filed by Hiten Singh Kashyap. The court ordered the CBI and the Bihar government to submit responses within two weeks.

Also read: NEET UG 2024: Grace marks cancelled for 1,563 candidates, re-exam on 23 June, Centre tells Supreme Court

News agency ANI quoted petitioner Nitin Vijay saying, “We have two main concerns - paper leak and grace marks. Now that NTA has accepted that grace marks were awarded to some students, why is the chance of re-test given only to those students who filed a writ petition in the High court, not to those who filed complaints only with local authorities?”

Also read: NEET UG 2024 Hearing Highlights: Re-test of all 1,563 candidates will be held on June 23

He further questioned: How can an aspirant from a village file a petition in court?" suggesting that NTA should open a window to invite complaints, verify them and then conduct the NEET exam again. 

The development in the case comes a day after the Centre and the NTA informed the Supreme Court that the decision to grant grace marks to 1,563 candidates has been rescinded. These candidates will be allowed to appear for a re-test scheduled for June 23. The results of the re-test will be released on June 30.

On Thursday, the Centre said, “They will have the option to either take a re-test or forgo the compensatory marks awarded to them for the loss of time.”

Also read: NEET UG 2024: ‘It’s a nightmare’, 6 perfect scorers in Haryana worried after NTA withdraw grace marks

The NEET UG examination for admission to MBBS and other courses was held on May 5 across 4,750 centres. Around 24 lakh candidates appeared for the exam, whose results were declared on June 4 but were expected around June 14.

However, per the court's order, the counselling process for admission to the MBBS, BDS, and other courses will continue as scheduled. The centre said that the counselling process will commence on July 6.

On June 10, students protested in Delhi against the suspected irregulates, seeking a probe into allegations of question paper leaks in states like Bihar.

The NTA administers the NEET-UG examination for admission to various medical courses nationwide in government and private institutions.