AMN
Supreme Court has refused to cancel NEET-UG 2024 examination and order a re-test. The order paves the way for commencement of counselling process from today for admission to undergraduate courses in government and private medical colleges across India.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that the material on record is not indicative of a systemic leak of the question paper to indicate a disruption of the sanctity of the examination held on May 5. The bench said, we are of the considered view that ordering the cancellation of the entire NEET UG 2024 exam is not justified on application of settled principles propounded by the decisions of this court on the basis of material on record.
The bench – which also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra — said that directing a fresh NEET UG for the present year will be replete with serious consequences which will be for over 20 lakh students who appeared in this exam and would cause disruption of admission schedule. The apex court said, cancellation of NEET UG 2024 can have cascading effects on the course of medical education, impact on availability of qualified medical professionals in the future and be seriously disadvantageous for the marginalised group for whom reservation was made in allocation of seats. Regarding a particular question in physics section of NEET-UG 2024 Examination, the top court has asked National Testing Agency (NTA) to re-tally the NEET UG result on the basis that option 4 represented the only correct answer to the question.