NEET-UG 2024 : Supreme Court Adjourns Petition Alleging Involvement Of NTA Officers In Manipulating OMR Sheets

The Vacation Bench of Justices Manoj Misra and S.V.N. Bhatti adjourned the same to next week after asking the petitioner to withdraw a similar petition filed before the High Court.

Right at the outset of the proceedings, NTA's counsel pointed out that the similar writ petition was filed before the High Court. In response, Advocate Ravi Kumar, for the petitioner, submitted that though this matter was mentioned before the High Court; however, it had refused to hear the same on the ground that the Supreme Court is seized of the NEET matters.

At this stage, he also averred that the petitioner would not pursue the matter before the High Court and added that the instant plea discloses “Completely different facts and grounds alleging that the NTA officers are involved in the manipulation of the OMR. Since 2020 I am coming to Hon'ble Court.....I am saying that the OMRs are itself swapped, the respondents are not having the original OMRs. I want this Hon'ble Court to see the OMR.”

However, the Court asked the Counsel to first withdraw the petition pending before the High Court and passed the following order:

“The learned counsel for the respondent has taken a preliminary objection regarding the maintainability…on the ground that the petitioner has already approached the High Court with the same prayer. Learned counsel for the petitioner prayed for time to file an affidavit explaining the said objection. As prayed, list on next week…”

To recap, several petitions were filed before the Supreme Court challenging the NEET-UG Examination 2024, an exam held by NTA on May 5 this year.

The petitioners called for judicial intervention into the alleged paper leak, award of grace marks against the time loss, and other irregularities/discrepancies that occurred during the conduct of the NEET-UG Examination. 

Previously, the Court had refused to defer the counselling/seat allotment process, which is scheduled to begin on July 6. Besides this, the Court had also orally observed that the admissions will be subject to the final outcome of the petitions and if the exams are set aside, then the counselling also will get invalidated consequentially.

Imperatively, the court had also expressed concern over the alleged discrepancy that occurred in the conduct of the examination where it orally remarked that even '0.001% negligence' in conducting the NEET-UG 2024 exams be looked into with all seriousness considering the immense labor put in by the candidate for the prestigious examination.

In a related development, the Central Govt, on June 22, entrusted the matter of alleged irregularities in the NEET (UG) Examination 2024 to the CBI for investigation.

In an official press release, the Ministry of Education stated that “certain cases of alleged irregularities/cheating/impersonation have been reported” as regards the NEET UG exam held on May 5.

Case Title: SABAREESH RAJAN Versus NATIONAL TESTING AGENCY (NTA) AND ORS., Diary No. 27585-2024