Supreme Court Stays Proceedings In 3 High Courts On Alleged Paper Leak In NEET-UG 2024 Exam

The Supreme Court on Thursday (June 20) stayed proceedings in petitions filed in Rajasthan, Calcutta and Bombay High Courts regarding the alleged paper leak in the NEET-UG 2024 exam held on May 5 this year.

A vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti passed the order while issuing notice on a transfer petition filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA). The NTA is seeking the transfer of these petitions from the High Court to the Supreme Court.

The bench was initially not inclined to pass an order to stay the proceedings. The bench said that if notice is issued on the transfer petitions, the High Courts generally refrain from dealing with the matter further. However, Advocate Vardhaman Kaushik, appearing for the NTA, submitted that the High Courts are dealing with the matter despite the Court issuing notice on a similar transfer petition last week.

The observed that cases filed relating to individual grievances could at least be heard by the High Courts.

"There may be some individual cases where petitions have been filed asking for the answer sheets, issue of higher marks and lesser marks, let those matters be thrashed out by the High Court. Today only we were reading in LiveLaw and Bar and Bench, they filed (petitioner before the High Court) fake and forged documents to compel the court to summon the original record when the original record came, they ran away," Justice Nath said.

Justice Nath was referring to the recent order of the Allahabad High Court where the court dismissed a writ petition moved by a NEET aspirant (Ayushi Patel) after it was revealed that she submitted forged documents in her petition alleging the NTA failed to declare her result.

Ultimately, the bench agreed to pass an order of stay. "In the meantime, the further proceedings before the High Court shall remain stayed," the Court ordered posting the transfer petitions to July 8.

Last week, the Supreme Court had issued on NTA's petition to transfer a similar petition pending in the Delhi High Court.

Today, the Court also issued notice on certain other writ petitions alleging discrepancies in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024 and tagged them with connected matters which are posted on July 8. The Court reiterated that it was not staying the counselling process and orally said that it is understood that the admission process will be subject to the result of the petitions.

The matters on which the Court issued notice are as follows :

1. NTA vs. Keshav Pareek and others (T.P.(C) No. 1602/2024) - petition pending in the Rajasthan High Court.

2. NTA vs.  Shreya Banerjee and others (T.P.(C) No. 1597/2024) - petition pending in the Calcutta High Court.

3. NTA vs. Tanmoy Chattopadhyay and others (T.P.(C) No. 1596/2024) - petition pending in the Calcutta High Court.

4. NTA vs. Nikita (Minor) and others (T.P.(C) No. 1600/2024) - petition pending in the Bombay High Court (Aurangabad Bench).

Also from today's hearing - NEET-UG 2024 | 'It's Understood That Admission Is Subject To Outcome Of Petitions' : Supreme Court Refuses To Stay Counselling