New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other respondents on a plea seeking the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 counselling and seat allotment process, set to commence on July 6.
A vacation bench presided over by Justice Vikram Nath, however, declined a request to defer the counselling start date to July 8, when the apex court is scheduled to hear a batch of related pleas, including petitions seeking the cancellation of the NEET-UG exam. The bench, also comprising Justice S.V.N. Bhatti, noted that the first phase of counselling would extend for a week and halting the process might cause an irreparable loss of time.
The court ordered, “Issue notice. Tag (with the pending batch of petitions). In the meantime, learned counsel appearing for respondents NTA and Union of India may file their response within two weeks. The other respondents may also file their response on or before the next date fixed.”
The matter is scheduled for a hearing on July 8.
Previously, the Supreme Court has emphasized that it would not pass any interim order to stay the admission counselling process for medical programmes following the NEET exam, despite allegations of paper leaks and other irregularities.
The plea, filed through advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, cited a 2015 judgment where the apex court had canceled the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) due to mass cheating and directed the CBSE to conduct a re-test within four weeks. The plea argued that the allegations against NEET-UG 2024 are even more severe and warrant similar judicial intervention.
The petitioners urged the court to cancel the NEET-UG exam, halt the upcoming counselling and seat allotment process, and conduct a re-examination in the interest of justice, equity, fairness, and the future of approximately 24 lakh students.
The writ petition highlighted statements recorded by the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police, in which accused individuals claimed that the NEET-UG 2024 question paper was leaked and provided to certain candidates a day before the exam. These leaked papers were reportedly identical to those used in the actual examination.
