Supreme Court Directs NTA to Address NEET (UG) Irregularities Promptly

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to promptly address any irregularities found in the conduct of the NEET (UG) examination.

A vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and S.V.N. Bhatti remarked that even “0.001 per cent negligence” in the conduct of the NEET exam should be thoroughly dealt with and that the matter should not be treated as adversarial litigation.

The apex court further highlighted the serious consequences of situations where a candidate becomes a doctor after playing fraud on the system.

The bench emphasized that if any mistake is found, the NTA must admit it and take corrective action to uphold public confidence in the conduct of competitive exams.

In response, the NTA stated that no adverse opinion should be formed based on speculation unless it files a proper reply before the court.

The Supreme Court granted two weeks to the NTA to respond to the petition alleging various irregularities in the NEET (UG) exam. The court also ordered tagging of the plea with the pending batch of petitions, which are scheduled for hearing on July 8.

Earlier, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police revealed that two accused had confessed their role in the question paper leak related to NEET (UG).

Last week, the Supreme Court had indicated that it would not order an ex-parte CBI probe into the matter but had asked the NTA to submit its reply to fresh petitions seeking a CBI/SIT probe into the allegations of paper leak within two weeks.