New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said that the National Testing Agency (NTA) should avoid "flip-flops" in conducting the exams and observed that mishaps orchestrated by it were a luxury students cannot afford.
Pronouncing the detailed judgement on pleas seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 over allegation of paper leak and malpractices, the apex court asked the Central government to completely restructure the exam process.
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also reiterated that there was no systemic breach in NEET-UG 2024 exam beyond Hazaribagh and Patna and, hence, no retest would be needed with respect to this year's NEET.
"The NTA must avoid the flip-flops it has done in this case. These flip-flops of the NTA do not serve the interests of the students," said the bench in its order.
It directed the Centre-appointed committee to recommend and implement top-to-bottom overhauling of the exam process, including security improvements, data protection measures, periodic audits, surprise inspections of exam centres, grievance redressal mechanisms for students and foolproof logistics.
It highlighted how question papers were transported in e-rickshaws to some exam centres during NEET-UG 2024.
"These issues such as the rear door being kept open in the strong room etc, then granting compensatory marks, then grace marks which led to 44 students getting 720/720. We have highlighted all errors of NTA and thus committee should identify and rectify these. These issues which have arisen must be rectified by the Union of India this year itself so that it is not repeated," the order stated.
The apex court had on July 23 declined to order re-exam of NEET UG and today it passed the detailed judgement.
The order of the apex court came on a batch of pleas seeking direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and to conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the test held.
Aspirants had approached the top court and raised the issue of leakage of question paper, awarding compensatory marks and anomaly in the question of NEET-UG.
NEET-UG examination, conducted by NTA, is the pathway for admissions into MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
The NEET-UG, 2024 was held across 4,750 centres on May 5 and around 24 lakh candidates appeared in it.
