Supreme Court says NEET re-exam should be last resort, seeks details on paper leak

The Supreme Court on the 8th of July said that it was not completely against conducting a re-exam of the NEET-UG paper, but stressed that it should be the last resort.

While hearing a clutch of petitions seeking a re-test of the medical entrance examination, the bench led by Chief Justice Chandrachud observed that there was a need to gauge the extent of the paper leak as it could also impact the honest students.

The court also acknowledged that questions were leaked on social media and via popular messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp at least 24 hours before the May 5 exam, but pointed to a lack of clarity over its spread.

"One thing is clear... questions were leaked. The sanctity of the exam has been compromised... This is beyond doubt. Now we have to establish the extent of the leak," the Chief Justice said.

"We have to be careful while ordering a re-test. We are dealing with the careers of lakhs of students."

"You don't cancel because some students cheated. We must be careful..."

The apex court has also asked the Centre and the National Testing Agency to respond to certain specific queries and posted the matters for further hearing on July 11.

The Court also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit a status report on the investigation into the paper leak cases.

It said the NTA must disclose about the steps taken so far for identification of beneficiaries of wrongdoings.

Referring to legal position on ordering re-test, the top court said it will have to be "scrutinised whether the alleged breach has taken place at systemic level, whether the breach has affected integrity of the entire exam process and whether it is possible to segregate the beneficiaries of fraud from the untainted students".

"In a situation where breach affects the entirety of process and it is not possible to segregate the beneficiaries from others, it may be necessary to order a re-test," said the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

It said the NTA must disclose about the steps taken so far for identification of beneficiaries of wrongdoings.