NEET UG 2024 SC Hearing : CJI orders IIT Delhi's expert opinion on Physics question, matter to continue tomorrow

The Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, ordered on Monday that an expert opinion from IIT Delhi be sought to resolve the issue of the ambiguous physics question that led to the award of grace marks. “We request the Director, IIT Delhi, to constitute a team of three experts on the subject concerned. The expert team will formulate its response and submit it to the register by 12 noon tomorrow,” he said and added that the team should give one correct answer. The matter will continue tomorrow.

The question in the Physics paper is significant, as 44 NEET UG toppers were awarded grace marks due to its ambiguity.

On the issue of the re-test, the petitioners submitted that if it cannot be ordered for all candidates, at least those who have qualified – about 13 lakh students—should be asked to re-appear.

During the hearing, Advocate Kunal Cheema pointed out the Tanwi Sarwal verdict, where an AIPMT re-test was ordered for 6 lakh students when 44 students were found to have used unfair means.

Earlier today, Advocate Hooda said there was a systemic failure in the conduct of NEET UG besides the paper leak. “My argument is that their system is so fragile that it is consistently being compromised,” he said.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud heard a batch of petitions seeking re-examination and cancellation of NEET UG results and a court-monitored probe into the alleged malpractices in the conduct of the test.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Sunday filed a fresh affidavit to the Supreme Court of India refuting allegations of a conflict of interest against the IIT-Madras director's report, which the center has relied upon to deny claims of a widespread leak and systemic failure in the conduct of NEET UG 2024. The IIT Madras director is an ex-officio member of the NTA governing body, which only handles policy matters while the NTA managing committee executes its core functions, it said.

In the last hearing, the SC bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, directed the National Testing Agency to publish city- and center-wise results of NEET UG without revealing the students' identities. The result was published on the NTA website on Saturday.

Data shared by the NTA shows that the candidates who allegedly benefited from the paper leak and other irregularities did not do well. However, some centers showed a high concentration of good scorers.

The performance of the candidates from the centres under the scanner, Oasis School in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, Hardayal Public School in Jhajjar, Haryana, Jay Jalaram International School in Godhra, Gujarat, was comparatively much below par.

On July 18, the court decided to limit its scrutiny to two specific instances of paper leaks in Patna and Hazaribagh. It said the decision on whether to scrap the examination and order a retest would depend on whether the breaches were localized or systemic.

More than 23 lakh students had taken the test on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including in 14 cities overseas. On July 18, the NTA informed the SC that the counselling process for UG medical admissions would likely begin on July 24.