The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to order a re-examination of the 2024 undergraduate National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test, saying that there was not enough evidence to show a widespread leak of the question paper, Bar and Bench reported.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued the order while hearing a batch of petitions seeking a fresh test, citing alleged paper leaks, optical mark recognition sheet manipulations, impersonation and cheating.
The examination, conducted by the National Testing Agency for admissions to undergraduate medical courses, was held on May 5 and the results were declared on June 4.
“At the present stage, there is absence of material on record to lead to a conclusion that result of the exam is vitiated or that there is a systemic breach of the sanctity of the exam,” the bench said on Tuesday.
Ordering a re-examination would also lead to serious consequences for over 23 lakh students, the court noted, adding that it would lead to a disruption of the academic schedule and have “cascading effects” on the course of medical education, Live Law reported.
The bench added that there would be a “serious element of disadvantage” for students belonging to marginalised groups who avail reservations in the allocation of seats, according to Live Law.
After the results of this year’s examination were announced on June 4, allegations of question paper leaks and other irregularities came to light. The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested 21 accused persons in the paper leak case from Bihar and Jharkhand so far.
At the hearing on Tuesday, the court noted that the paper leak seemed to be a “localised” one that was limited to Bihar’s Patna and Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, according to Bar and Bench.
“CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] probe in future may reveal a different picture,” it said. “But equally we cannot today say with any degree of prima facie nature that leak has gone beyond Patna and Hazaribagh to show that it is systemic and spread across the country.”
During the hearing, the National Testing Agency, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, noted that 4,750 examination centres were set up for the test. “Top 100 students are spread across 95 centres in 56 cities and 18 States/UTs,” he said, adding that the alleged paper leaks did not have a pan-India effect, Bar and Bench reported.
The petitioners, however, contended that the paper leak was systemic in nature, Live Law reported. This along with the structural deficiencies in the modalities of the examination justified a re-test, they added.
IIT-Delhi panel on physics question
A day earlier, the court asked the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi to form an expert committee to give its opinion on a physics question in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, for which the National Testing Agency awarded marks for two options.
One of the petitions had challenged the decision of the National Testing Authority to treat two options as the correct answers to one multiple choice question.
Some of the petitioners argued that according to the old National Council of Educational Research and Training syllabus, option two was correct.
The new syllabus of the National Council of Educational Research and Training indicated option four as correct, but the National Testing Agency treated both the options as the right answer.
On Tuesday, the bench noted that the expert committee had said that option four was the correct answer, Live Law reported.
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