The Supreme Court of India today said that the sanctity of NEET-UG 2024 has been affected and issued notice to the Central Government and National Testing Agency. The apex Court has sought the response from NTA.

The Supreme Court was hearing the petition filed by 10 individuals on June 1 before the declaration of the results seeking the cancellation of the exam in view of the allegations of paper leak, Live Law said in its report.

A vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah listed the petition for 8th July 2024.

Over 24 lakh students appeared the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) for the Under-Graduate (UG) Medical courses on 5th May 2024. However, soon after the test concluded, several people alleged that the paper was leaked. NTA has refuted all claims and explained that in one centre, English question papers were distributed to Hindi medium students that caused confusion, however the integrity of the examination was not compromised in other centres.

Meanwhile in Bihar, Police arrested over 20 people on charges of “cheating and paper leak”.

The result of NEET-UG 2024 was then declared on 4th June 2024, the same day the Lok Sabha results were declared to the surprise of stakeholders. More controversy followed as for there were 67 students scored full marks of 720 in the exam of which 6 candidates appeared from the same centre. Further, 1,563 students were given grace marks by NTA for loss of time which is being questioned.

On 8th June 2024, the Education Ministry informed that it has constituted a four-member committee to review the decision to award grace marks.

After the declaration of the results, few more petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court questioning the decision of the National Testing Agency to award grace marks to several candidates.