The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking cancellation of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test undergraduate exam (NEET-UG) held on September 12, 2021, due to alleged paper leak and malpractices.
A Bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao while dismissing the plea said, "Instances of impersonation and paper leakage cannot be to the detriment to the lakhs of students who have appeared for the exam."
You know that the court will not cancel the exam in which 7.5 lakh people have taken the exam, this exam was conducted nationally and not locally, Justice Rao told the counsel appearing for the petitioner seeking direction to conduct the exam afresh.
The apex court also criticised the petitioner for being "adventurous by filing the petition" and warned that costs will be imposed for filing such a plea.
"What sort of writ petitions are filed? Lakhs of students have taken the exam? You want the entire exam to be cancelled?" the bench told the counsel appearing for the petitioner.
It has initially proposed to dismiss the petition with Rs 5 lakhs costs but later did not impose the costs on the advocate's request.
The counsel told the Bench that papers were leaked within 20 minutes of the starting of exams and solutions were shared in WhatsApp.
The plea alleged that the NEET-UG 2021 has been irreversibly vitiated by the use of unfair means and malpractices through electronic gadgets, devices and facilitation through other illegal and unfair means.
The NEET-UG aspirant had approached the top court seeking cancellation of the exam and to conduct a fresh exam and stay on the declaration of results NEET-UG 2021.
The plea seeking cancellation of the exam conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) across nation and conduct of examination afresh while citing instances of cheating, malpractices, impersonation and paper leak.
The plea sought directions to the Ministry of Education, National Testing Agency and National Medical Commission to enhance the standard of Security protocols including biometric verification of candidates, use of jammers etc to conduct the examination in a fair and transparent manner.
It further sought directions to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Director General of Police of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to submit a fact-finding report before the apex court within a week with all relevant information and documents as well as the findings regarding the alleged malpractices in NEET-UG 2021.
The plea said that even if when students benefits illegally, it would amount to grave injustice.
On September 12, the day of the examination, Rajasthan Police had made several arrests. It had arrested eight people in which a girl was the NEET aspirant and seven others were held for helping her in cheating in the exam.
The police had arrested 18-year-old candidate Dineshwari Kumari along with invigilator Ram Singh, in charge of the exam centre's administration unit Mukesh, Dineshwari's uncle and four others were also nabbed in connection with the case.
( With inputs from ANI )
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