No Systemic Failure In NEET-UG 24, Instances Of Paper Leak & Unfair Means Isolated : NTA To Supreme Court, Opposes Cancellation Of Exam

Like the Union Government, the National Testing Agency (NTA) also filed an saffidavit in the Supreme Court opposing the pleas for the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 exam.

The NTA stated that the instances of alleged malpractices are isolated and confined to centres in two cities, i.e., Patna and Godhra. Thus, in view of that, it is submitted that if the entire examination is cancelled, then it would be “highly detrimental to the larger public interest” of lakhs of students who took their exam.

Notably, the testing agency has asserted that the alleged malpractices have neither impacted the exam's "sanctity" nor provided any “undue benefit” to the students who appeared from their exams in these centres. It asserted that the NEET-UG 2024 undertaken by 23 lakh students at 4750 centres in 571 cities has not suffered "systemic failure" and the entire exam has not been vitiated by individual instances of unfair means and paper leak.

“The performance chart of the students at the said centers reveals that the performance of the students at these centers is neither abnormally high nor significantly different from the national average of performance of the remaining centers at different places in the country. The data so prepared also shows that the students from the concerned center have not scored such marks which would make them eligible or entitle them for admission to the medical colleges of primary importance.,” the affidavit said.

Elaborating on the action taken, it has been submitted that in the case of Patna center, the modus operandi adopted was to sneak one copy of the question papers. This copy was allegedly used to facilitate malpractices by solving the questions and tutoring the answers to the candidates involved. However, it has also been highlighted that the number of such candidates who have allegedly benefitted appears to be “minuscule”.

"However, based on the revelations made so far in the case, it is humbly submitted that the alleged incident/attempt of leak does not seem to have any bearing on the conduct of entire examination, as the number of students/candidates found to be involved by the investigating agencies is minuscule compared to number of candidates who appeared. The cancellation of the entire examination on the basis of the aforesaid factor, would be hugely counterproductive and significantly harmful to the larger public interest, especially to the career prospects of the qualified candidates."

Coming to the malpractice at Godhra center, it has been argued that the same was seemingly engineered by one Deputy Superintendent of examination namely Mr. Tushar Bhatt. Allegedly, he had conspired with some of the students to help them by filling their OMR sheets after the completion of their examination. However, as per the agency, the officials addressed this issue in advance and the accused was timely arrested.

“As in the case of Godhra instance, the investigation in respect of this incident which was initially conducted by the local police, has also been assigned to CBI, the premier investigation agency at the central level. A few arrests also appear to have already been made and some of the identified students who were supposed to be beneficiaries of the malpractice have also been arrested along with the masterminds of the offence.,” the affidavit added.

Case Details : Vanshika Yadav v. UOI W.P.(C) No. 000335 - / 2024