NEET Controversy: New Petition In Supreme Court Asks A Committee Of Retired Judges Replacing Formed By The NTA
Several petitions have been filed by the NEET aspirants or education representatives since the NEET UG – 2024 exam was conducted. The alleged exam-related irregularities at several centers and information on paper leaks were reported in different states and cities. The NEET controversies were fulled even more instead of reducing since June 9, 2024, when the result was announced. Nationwide protests are going on by the students, political leaders are demanding accountability from the government and several petitions have been filed in the courts following the allegation of a scam in the NEET exam.
On June 11, 2024, the Supreme Court was hearing a petition to ensure accountability and to stop the NEET counseling procedure. Today on June 12, 2024, a new petition was filed in the Supreme Court by NEET-UG 2024 candidates seeking the formation of a committee of retired judges of either the SC or High Court to replace the panel formed by the NTA. Notably, on June 8, 2024, NTA and the Ministry of Education announced the formation of a four-member committee to review the grant of grace marks to over 1500 students to compensate for the loss of time in the NEET UG exam.
The new petition also seeks directions to the DGP, State of Bihar to produce the records and status report concering investigation conducted for the FIR registered over mass-level paper leakage at Shastri Nagar, Patna. The petitioners also demanded the cancellation of the NEET UG 2024 exam and requested for the re-examination.
Apart from the given petition, Alakh Pandey, the CEO of the educational technology company Physics Wallah, has also approached the Supreme Court challenging the grace marks arbitrarily. According to his lawyer, Pandey has collected representations from about 20,000 students that shows the about 70 to 80 marks given to at least 1,500 students.
Hearing the June 12 petition the Supreme Court ordered to continue with the counseling process and demanded response from NTA by July 8, 2024. However, the highest court said, “The sanctity has been affected, so we need answers”.
