NEET-UG 2024 | Supreme Court Refuses To Postpone Counselling From July 6

While hearing a plea seeking cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 exam held by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5 this year, the Supreme Court today refused to defer the counselling/seat allotment process which is scheduled to begin from July 6.

The vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti sought NTA's response on certain fresh pleas and tagged them with cases pending on similar issues (which are listed on July 8).

Counsel for one of the petitioners requested during the hearing that the counselling from July 6 be postponed, as the Supreme Court is set to hear petitions challenging the NEET-UG exam on July 8.

In response, Justice Bhatti said,

"Counselling is not open and shut. It is a process. That process commences on 6th...What is the duration of the first schedule? Is it four days or five days? A week...Afterwards, within that week, applicants have any number of options to amend/modify etc...after they [...] then only it gets in the domain of the convenor. We do not want even this time to be utilized by the candidate...they will come to know what are the colleges open...it's not that everything is accepted...we are allowing time not to be lost, either by this side or that side."

Previously as well, the Court had refused to stay the counselling process. Yesterday, it had 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. 

Today, the Court dealt with the following three writ petitions -

1st Petition: Seeking CBI Investigation Into Alleged Paper Leak

This petition was filed by NEET-UG candidates Hiten Singh Kashyap and Palak Mittal seeking CBI investigation into the alleged instances of paper leak and malpractices in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024 exam. The petitioners inter-alia raise allegations of exam centre manipulations in the NEET-UG exam.

Their plea mentioned that the Gujarat police has registered a case after a teacher offered to solve the NEET exam upon accepting Rs.10 lakhs. Similarly, an FIR has been lodged at Patna, Bihar, accompanied with a statement made before the Magistrate Court in Patna, indicating the existence of substantial evidence corroborating the NEET paper leak.

Apart from these, the petitioners raised the issue of grant of grace marks by NTA. However, while dealing with another set of petitions, the Centre told the Supreme Court that the grace marks will be revoked and the 1563 candidates who were given such marks will be given an option of re-test.

On the last date of hearing in the case (ie June 14), vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta had issued notice on the petition and tagged it with other cases raising similar issues, which are listed on July 8. During the hearing, the bench had reiterated that the counselling process, which is set to begin in July, will not be stayed.

Today, the case was listed for hearing of an interlocutory application for appropriate orders/directions. Counsel for petitioners submitted that out of 1563 candidates, who have been given the option to re-appear, 773 failed despite being given the benefit of grace marks. He assailed the fact that in the re-conduct of the exam, even these candidates are getting a second chance, alongside those who qualified. It was further alleged that NTA had withheld material information and there was no grievance redressal committee in place.

On hearing the counsel, Justice Nath directed NTA to file a response to the application. Be that as it may, the petitioners' counsel insisted that re-conduct of the exam was happening and students were under a lot of stress. This led Justice Nath to part with the case with an observation that contradictory submissions were being made:

"...when there is a chance of setting aside of the main exam...where is the question of 1563 candidates? Are you worried about them (who will have to re-appear) or you are worried about the other candidates who are not being allowed to give the exam? Your argument is some candidates who have failed are being allowed a second chance...and now you are arguing that those candidates who are going to give this examination are under stress...what is this? Contradictory arguments you are making".

2nd Petition: Seeking Cancellation Of NEET-UG 2024 Exam And Counselling

The second petition listed before the court was recently filed by NEET-UG candidates-Floral Vyas and 9 others seeking cancellation of the exam as well as the counselling/seat allotment process set to begin from July 6. The petitioners pray that the exam be reconducted and monitored by the court.

Floral Vyas (and others) have claimed that in the interest of the future of 24 lakh students, the NEET UG 2024 exam deserves to be cancelled, as serious allegations of paper-leak, wrongful award of grace marks, possible corruption and bribery have surfaced and the issues are sub judice before the court. They cite the recent cancellation of UGC-NET 2024 exam (conducted by NTA) and handing over of the case to CBI as a ground in support, saying that the same indicates current system of NTA is not full-proof and is prone to be compromised.

During today's proceedings, petitioners' counsel submitted that they were merely praying for pausing of the NEET counselling for 2 days (and not stay), as it is scheduled to begin from July 6 and the petitions raising issues regarding the exam are coming up on July 8.

At this point, Justice Bhatti observed that counselling is not an open-and-shut thing, rather, it's a process which goes on for days. The judge opined that not everything was being accepted and in passing its order, the bench was merely ensuring that time for candidates to figure out what all colleges would be open for them was not lost.

The court called for NTA's response to the petition and the same was tagged with other cases coming up on July 8.

3rd Petition: Raising Similar Issues Regarding NEET-UG 2024 Exam

The third petition was filed by one Sunil Jain raising similar issues in the context of the NEET-UG exam. The court tagged it with similar petitions coming up on July 8 and called for NTA's response.

Case Details:

(1) Hiten Singh Kashyap and Another v. National Testing Agency and Others, W.P.(C) No. 377/2024 (and connected case)

(2) Floral Vyas and Ors v. National Testing Agency (NTA) and Ors., Diary No. 27494/2024

(3) Sunil Jain v. National Testing Agency (NTA) and Ors., Diary No.27502/2024