NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday told the Centre and National Testing Agency (NTA) that if there is any negligence in conducting the NEET-UG, 2024 exam, it should be thoroughly dealt with. “If there is 0.001 per cent negligence on the part of anyone, it should be thoroughly dealt with. All these matters ought not to be treated as adversarial litigation,” observed a vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti. The bench told counsels appearing for Centre and NTA that children have prepared for the exams and “we cannot forget their labour” for preparing for these exams. It told the counsel of NTA that as an agency which is conducting the examination, it must “act fair”. “If there is a mistake, say yes, this is a mistake, and this is the action we are going to take. At least that inspires confidence in your performance,” the top court told NTA while adding that it expects timely action from them. Aspirants have raised the issue of leakage of the question paper, awarding compensatory marks and anomalies in the question of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Under Graduate (NEET-UG) 2024. The apex court, while hearing fresh petitions relating to alleged paper leaks and malpractices in the NEET-UG, 2024 exam on May 5 this year, issued notices and sought a response from NTA within two weeks. It has tagged these pleas, along with several petitions pending before it and posted them for hearing on July 8. Several petitions were filed in the apex court seeking direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and to conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the test held on May 5. Last week, the NTA told the Supreme Court that the scorecards of 1563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who got “grace marks” to compensate for the loss of time suffered while appearing for the exam will be cancelled and the students will have a chance to reappear for the exam. “Exam will be conducted on June 23 and result will be declared before June 30,” NTA had told the apex court. The apex court had already refused to stay the counselling of NEET-UG, 2024. The NEET-UG examination, conducted by the NTA, is the pathway for admissions into MBBS, BDS and AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
