The hearing of petitions filed in the Supreme Court against the alleged paper leak in NEET UG 2024 has been postponed to July 18, marking a significant date for the next update. A bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud will hear a series of petitions concerning the controversial NEET-UG 2024 medical entrance exam. These include pleas alleging irregularities and malpractices during the May 5 test and seeking a fresh examination. During a previous hearing on July 8, the Supreme Court said that the integrity of NEET-UG 2024 had been compromised.

In an additional affidavit submitted on Wednesday, the Centre reiterated its commitment to upholding the integrity of NEET-UG 2024. In compliance with the Supreme Court's directives, the Ministry of Education had requested IIT Madras to conduct comprehensive data analytics of the results of NEET-UG 2024 candidates, further ensuring the fairness of the process.

NEET Highlights

- The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that there was no evidence of widespread cheating or specific groups of candidates unfairly benefiting from abnormal scores in NEET-UG 2024.

- According to the Centre's additional affidavit submitted to the apex court, IIT Madras conducted data analytics on the NEET-UG 2024 results. Experts found that the marks distribution followed a bell-shaped curve typical of large-scale exams, indicating no irregularities.

- The Centre also stated in its affidavit that the counselling process for undergraduate seats for the academic year 2024-25 will commence in four rounds starting from the third week of July.

- Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency (NTA), responsible for conducting NEET-UG, submitted a separate affidavit to the Supreme Court. They analyzed marks distribution at national, state, city, and centre levels for NEET-UG 2024.

- 23.33 lakh students took NEET-UG 2024 on May 5 across 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 cities overseas.

- Earlier affidavits from the Centre and NTA argued against scrapping NEET-UG, stating it would adversely affect lakhs of honest candidates without evidence of widespread confidentiality breaches.

- NEET-UG, conducted by the NTA, is the entrance test for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in government and private institutions nationwide.