Supreme Court To Hear NEET Re-Exam Pleas Today To Decide Fate of 23 Lakh MBBS Aspirants

New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India is set to hear a series of petitions today, July 18, concerning the contentious NEET-UG 2024 examination. A bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, along with Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, will address over 40 pleas. These include petitions from the National Testing Agency (NTA) requesting the transfer of multiple cases pending in various high courts to the Supreme Court to streamline litigation, according to a report by PTI.

The hearing, initially scheduled for July 11, was postponed as some parties had not yet received responses from the Centre and the NTA. During the prior hearing, the bench acknowledged receipt of a status report from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding the investigation into the alleged paper leak and stated that it would be considered in today's session.

Also Read: Supreme Court To Hear NEET-UG Retest Pleas on July 18; Major Developments So Far in NEET Leak Case

Last week, the Centre submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court, affirming the integrity of the NEET-UG 2024 exam process. It referenced key findings from a data analysis by IIT-Madras, which indicated no widespread malpractice or any localized advantage among candidates. The analysis showed a consistent distribution of high scores across different examination centers.

The NTA also submitted a separate affidavit, detailing an analysis of the marks distribution which supported the Centre's findings, showing no unusual factors affecting the results.

Previously, on July 8, the Supreme Court directed the NTA to provide detailed information on three critical points: the timing of the initial paper leak, the method of question paper dissemination, and the interval between the leak and the exam's conduct. Chief Justice Chandrachud emphasized that the occurrence of the paper leak is undisputed, and the court's current focus is on addressing the consequences of this breach in exam integrity.