The Supreme Court in its final hearing of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 case announced that there is no widespread data to show that the results of the NEET-UG are vitiated entirely and that there was a systemic breach in its sanctity. Hence, there will be no re-NEET.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra heard the case. The NEET UG exams were under scrutiny for alleged irregularities, paper leak concerns and malpractices.
While pronouncing the verdict, DY Chandrachud said, “The Court is mindful of the fact that directing a fresh NEET UG would have serious consequences on the 2 million students appearing for the exam...”
However, on the other hand, the reaction from the student community has been the opposite.
The students and experts alike have shown concerns about the serious ramifications of the decision on lakhs of honest aspirants who made every possible effort to ensure that the test is cancelled and re-conducted.
Experts and students have taken to social media platform X after the final decision by the apex court to show distress and at the same time to accept their fate.
Dr Vivek Pandey, a medical activist went on to call the hearing day as "Black Day for Medical Aspirants" emphasising the serious harm the hearing outcome would have on aspiring doctors. He calls it a failure of the system and a victory for corruption.
Dr Dhruv Chauhan, National Coordinator of the Indian Medical Association - Junior Doctors Network (IMA-JDN) highlights the importance of emotional support for the aspirants in this difficult time. He urged everyone to lend a helping hand to the aggrieved students
He further commented on how the government took no time to cancel the University Grants Commission - National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET), Council of Scientific & Industrial Research - NET (CSIR NET) and NEET - Postgraduate (PG), but they fought the whole nation to ensure that the NEET UG exam is not cancelled.
Alakh Pandey, the Chief Executive Officer of Physics Wala, who was also actively involved in the fight against paper leaks as he had filed a petition too, tried to boost their morale after the unchangeable fate.
He said, “We will tell our students that the Supreme Court was the last option, now whatever decision it is, we have to accept.”
Vivek Thakur, Managing Director, Scholars Den and an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur alumnus, reacted to a tweet by the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on the verdict, and said said, “It very clearly proves that fight for Re-NEET was lost because of politicisation of the issue- nobody was actually concerned about right or wrong for students, good and bad for the education and health system of the country- it's all about the calculation of one's own benefits and losses.”
“A systemic failure on the part of NTA and an organised loot of MBBS seats by history-sheeter leak mafia has gone unpunished because of turning into political fight between the government and the opposition,” he further wrote.
Dr Ayush, a doctor and former-IITan, as stated in their X bio, called out the statement of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan given during a speech in the Parliament where the latter was saying that there has been no evidence of paper leaks in the last seven years.
He wrote, "HYPOCRISY EXPOSED. 11:10 AM : CJI DY Chandrachud in #SupremeCourt accepted that the Paper Leak in NEET UG is an ESTABLISHED FACT. 11:20 AM: Edu Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said there is no evidence of any paper leak.”
