The NEET-UG paper leak controversy that has been going on for months has come to an end today. The Supreme Court ordered that the NEET-UG examination will not be conducted again. The bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra took this decision saying that there was not enough evidence. Let us know what points the CJI talked about during the hearing of the NEET-UG paper leak case in the Supreme Court.
Confusion of having two answers to one question, report of IIT Delhi revealed
A 3-member committee constituted by IIT Delhi impartially investigated the confusion of having two answers to one question, the report of which was presented in the Supreme Court. After seeing the report, while deliberating on it, the Chief Justice’s bench said that after examining the question which was confused as having two answers, it was found that option 4 was the correct answer to that question. NTA did not make any mistake by giving marks to option 4.
discuss personal complaints
While hearing the NEET-UG paper leak case, the Chief Justice’s bench said that the candidates who have personal complaints will be separated and sent to the High Court. The bench said that it is not the job of the Supreme Court to resolve individual complaints.
Decision on future of 24 lakh students
During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the Supreme Court is essentially discussing the issue of whether the paper was leaked across the country or whether there was any incident of theft. On this, senior advocate Narendra Hooda said that he detected it after 2 hours at 4:30 pm in Sawai Madhopur. The SG said that the honorable member is investigating an issue in which about 24 lakh students are involved. Total centers are 4750, this is the figure to examine the cross country effect at all India level.
Debate regarding question paper
During the hearing in the Supreme Court, there was a debate on whether the students were given the wrong question paper or the question paper was given late. The Chief Justice had asked that initially the wrong paper was given by Canara Bank, in response to which Hooda said that the question paper was given in different medium of language at two centres, Sawai Madhopur and Ghaziabad centres. Questioning this further, the judge asked when this matter came to light, to which Hooda said that it came to light on social media at 2:30 in Sawai Madhopur. This is his affidavit on record. The exam started at 2 pm, question papers were given and students complained that this was not their medium. NTA came to know at 4:30 the same day.
120 students had given the exam again in Sawai Madhopur?
Hooda said that after finding out that wrong question paper was given in the centers of Sawai Madhopur and Ghaziabad, the same evening the NTA had decided that another exam would be held from 6-9 pm. On this the Chief Justice asked how many students were there in Sawai Madhopur. In response to this, Hooda said that there were 120 students.
Percentiles are higher than coaching areas
During the hearing, SG said that we have found that management quota seats have been filled with students who are not even qualified. Chhattisgarh, Narayanpur has the lowest percentile. The number of qualified students does not mean that they have got the seat. There are some centers like Kota, Sikar, Kottayam, Namakkal, Rajkot, which are coaching centers for competitive exams and exams like UPSC.
Discussion on percentile system
During the hearing, SG told that 12.5 lakh are qualified, there are only 1 lakh 8 thousand seats. Years ago, there were some management quota seats in private medical colleges. Even people who had not qualified the exam used to take admission in them. They used to score only 50 marks or 70 marks, hence this percentile system was introduced. A total of 5800 people took the exam in Gujarat-Bhavnagar. There are 4660 people who scored more than 164. In this case the passing percentage is 80.34%.
Question regarding examination center
Regarding the examination centre, the Chief Justice asked whether any document is required to change the examination centre? Responding to this, SG said that no, we do not ask for documents. They have the option to choose the city, the center is allotted, we do not appeal on why this city was chosen etc.
discussion on re-exam
Resuming the hearing after lunch, the Chief Justice said that if we are ordering re-examination, students should know that they will have to start preparing and if we do not, they should also know this. We cannot keep them hanging, so we have to end the hearing today. This is not right even from an institutional point of view, you see.
Paper leak limited to Patna and Hazaribagh
The Chief Justice asked whether the court can order a re-test as the investigation has not been completed and there is a possibility that the leak is not limited to only two places. We are dealing with 23 lakh students. Let’s look at it both ways/ CBI investigation in future may present a different picture but in the same way we cannot say today with any prima facie nature to show that the leak has gone beyond Patna and Hazaribagh. That it is systematic and has spread throughout the country.
Let us tell you that after the decision of the Supreme Court in the NEET-UG paper leak case, now the counseling of NEET-UG will start from Wednesday i.e. 24th July.