“I want the issue to be settled”: NEET-UG case petitioner on SC hearing

The Supreme Court will continue hearing the batch of cases regarding irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 exam, held on May 5 for undergraduate medical admissions on the grounds of paper leak and other malpractices, tomorrow, July 23.

So far, there have been significant discussions regarding paper leaks, mismanagement, cut-off inflation, irregularities and other anomalies in the national-level examination.

Speaking to EdexLive, Riddhima Rao, a NEET-UG 2024 candidate and one of the petitioners, said, “I want the case to be settled tomorrow since it has been really long now and the students have been anxious since the declaration of results. We are not sure whether to study or not. There should be a re-examination for selected centres at least in Sikkar and Hazaribagh where paper leak has been proved. That is the least that needs to be done.”

Today, the SC directed the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi to constitute a team of three experts to form an opinion on the correct answer to a question.

This comes after a few students challenged the decision of the National Testing Agency (NTA) to award marks for two options for the same question.

Reacting to this, Riddhima said, “One question was discussed for a long time in the courtroom. On one hand, they are discussing whether the whole examination should be scrapped, and on the other hand, they are stuck on one question. The paper leak allegations were not discussed properly,  even when that is the main focus.”

Educationist Jayaprakash Gandhi, on the other hand, expressed that conducting a re-examination can be challenging.

“Re-NEET is going to be very challenging, of course. Imagine, if a retest is done, a few genuine students who might have lost track of their preparation in the last few months, it might prove to be a setback for them. It is important to find out who is really involved in this scam,” he said.

“All the findings only indicate that there is a scam. But NTA is still not ready to openly accept the fact and is giving lame excuses. Through the data, through the evidence, it has been proved categorically that there has been something wrong on a widespread level. Now, the NTA has to come out clearly regarding what has happened with the entire picture,” Gandhi added.