"Will Create Chaos": SC Refuses Plea Against Cancellation Of UGC NET

Supreme Court of India today refused to entertain a plea challenging the decision to hold a re-examination for the UGC-NET exam. The court said “there will be chaos all over” while declining the plea as the fresh exam is scheduled to be held next week.

The petitioners challenged the decision taken by the authorities to cancel the UGC-NET exam that was held previously on June 18 and to hold the re-examination on August 21.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) had earlier canceled the national level entrance-cum-eligibility exam which is being held for the admissions to PhD courses and also for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in Indian universities after reports of paper leak emerged. The test was held for more than nine lakh students on June 18 and was canceled a day after citing ‘compromised integrity’ of the exam by the Education Ministry.

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The bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, noted that that two months have already passed since the first decision came and while entertaining the petition would only “add uncertainty and result in utter chaos”.

“Entertaining the plea at the present stage would only add to uncertainty and add to utter chaos… the Central government must be doubly cautious after the NEET-UG fiasco and thus it was cancelled. Let this process go on now,” the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said.

The CJI said, “let there be finality, we are not in a perfect world. Let the exam happen on August 21. Let there be certainty for students”.

The bench noted that over 9 lakh students will sit for the exam however only 47 petitioners have challenged it.