SC asks 10 questions to Centre and NTA, says re-test will be needed if nature of leak is widespread

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said that if the nature of the malpractice in the NEET UG exam was widespread, a re-test will have to be conducted as the last resort. It also said that there would be no need for a re-test if it is found that the nature of malpractice was isolated. The court will take a decision about this after determining the nature of the malpractice.

The bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra raised important questions to the central government and the National Testing Agency (NTA). The court will decide on the re-examination after assessing the answers received from both. The court also said that it needs to know the current status of NEET UG Counselling. It directed the CBI to submit the status report of the investigation tomorrow. The court will hear petitions again on Thursday.

Considering a set of public interest petitions filed by people, including students, the apex court said that the fact that the sanctity of the exam had been compromised was beyond doubt.

"The fact that the sanctity of exam has been compromised is beyond doubt. It is an admitted fact that there is a leak and the nature of the leak is something that we are determining. If it is not extensive then there is no cancellation. But before we order a retest, we must be conscious of the extent of the leak as we are dealing with 23 lakh students...," said the bench.

"So what is the nature of the leak, how was the leak, the time, how was the leak disseminated, what are the actions which Centre and NTA has taken to identify the beneficiary students of the wrongdoing," said the CJI.

The apex court also said that if the leak was on social media, then it would have been very widespread.

Questions asked by the Supreme Court

1. What action was taken by the government on the question paper leak?
2. When and where were the questions prepared?
3. When was the question paper printed?
4. When were the question papers sent to exam centres?
5. Where were the question papers kept before the exam?
6. Nature of leaks and FIRs?
7. Which are the places where the question paper got leaked?
8. What is the difference between the time when the question paper got leaked and the time when the exam took place?
9. Methods adopted to identify the beneficiaries of leakages?
10. Number of students who benefited through leaked papers?