Today, the Supreme Court has taken action by issuing notices in response to petitions requesting a CBI investigation into the reported incidents of paper leaks and misconduct during the NEET-UG 2024 exam held on May 5th.

Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta of the vacation bench have consolidated these cases with previous petitions addressing similar concerns, scheduling them for hearing on July 8. The National Testing Agency has been instructed to submit its response within two weeks, while other respondents, including the Centre, have been granted time until the next hearing date.

During the hearing, the bench raised objections to a statement made by a counsel representing the petitioners, who mentioned that students in Kota were committing suicide. Justice Nath pointed out that these suicides were not directly linked to the NEET-UG 2024 results and advised the counsel against making unnecessary emotional arguments in court.

When the counsel emphasized that the petitioners were seeking a CBI investigation into the alleged paper leak, Justice Nath noted that it was essential to await the NTA's response on the matter before issuing any orders. Addressing the counsel, the judge posed the question, "Are you suggesting that a CBI investigation can be ordered ex parte today?"

In response, the counsel highlighted that the petitioners were seeking other "imminent" reliefs as well, such as NTA furnishing details of entire examination pertaining to every candidate before counselling begins in July. "It's the future of 24 lakh students...", he urged.

"We understand that...we are conscious of all that", remarked Justice Nath, before saying that all arguments shall be raised on 8 July.

The NTA has not disclosed the qualified number of students and disqualified number of students. Instead of that, they have sought re-examination of the entire 1563, whereas, as per admission of the NTA, 790 are the students who qualified the exam and 773 are the disqualified even after obtaining the grace marks," he said.

In response, Justice Mehta instructed the counsel to file their objections to the order so that they could be duly considered.

The bench also reiterated its stance that it would not issue a stay on the counseling process.

Among the seven writ petitions before the Court, one was filed by NEET-UG candidates Hiten Singh Kashyap and Palak Mittal. This petition highlighted allegations of exam centre manipulations during the NEET-UG exam. As an example, the petitioners pointed out suspicions regarding students from states such as Odisha, Karnataka, and Jharkhand opting for a specific centre located in Godhra, Gujarat.

"For example, in Panchmahal's Godhra taluka, Gujarat at least 16 students from distant States like Odisha, Jharkhand, and Karnataka allegedly paid Rs 10 lakh each to clear NEET and chose Center at Gujarat i.e. Jai Jalaram School as their center, despite being from other States."

In addition to these concerns, the petitioners also raised objections regarding the National Testing Agency (NTA) granting grace marks. However, in a separate development, the Centre informed the Supreme Court yesterday that the grace marks would be rescinded. The 1563 candidates who received these marks will be offered the choice of a re-test.

In related matters, the Supreme Court has requested the NTA to provide its response to three other petitions addressing the issue of paper leak. These petitions are scheduled for hearing on July 8th.