SC seeks correct answer from IIT-Delhi experts of a NEET-UG question

New Delhi [India], July 22 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi to constitute a team of three experts on the subject concerned to form opinion on the correct answer of a question in the NEET-UG 2024.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked the team to give their opinion by Tuesday 12 noon regarding the correct answer to an MCQ question of the exam for which the National Testing Agency awarded marks for two options.

Some students challenged the decision of the NTA to award marks for two options for the question.

“… In order to resolve the issue as regards the correct answer, we are of the considered view that an expert opinion should be sought from IIT Delhi. We request the Director of IIT Delhi to constitute a team of three experts of the subject concerned. The expert team constituted by the Director is requested to formulate the opinion on the correct option and remit the opinion to the Registrar by 12 noon tomorrow. The Registrar General is requested to communicate the order to the IIT Delhi Director so that expeditious steps for the preparation of the opinion can be taken,” the bench stated in its order.

The petitioners said, as per the instructions issued by the NTA, the students had to follow the latest edition of the NCERT text book. It was told to the bench that option 4 was the correct answer for question no. 19 as per latest edition. As per the old NCERT syllabus, option 2 was the correct option.

The petiitoners said the NTA’s decision to award marks to students who selected option 2 is contrary to the NTA’s own instruction that the latest NCERT version has to be followed.

As the hearing remained inconclusive, the bench said it would continue hearing the arguments tomorrow in the case alleging paper leak and malpractices in the NEET-UG exam.

On Tuesday, the apex court would hear arguments of NTA and Centre.

During the hearing, senior advocate Narender Hooda appearing for petitioners-students told the top court that Bihar police investigation statements say that leak was on May 4 and was prior to the deposit of question papers with respective banks.

To this, the bench observed that the question paper ferried by e-rickshaw is an established fact, but the little nuance is that the picture that was distributed was of the OMR sheet and not the question paper.

As Solicitor General Tushar Mehta read the statements of the accused, CJI observed that the statements of the accused indicate students were gathered to memorise on evening of May 4 and that means leak happened before May 4.

The court has to see if the leak is localised and confined only to Hazaribagh and Patna or whether it is widespread and systemic, said the bench.

Hooda also apprised the bench that Hardayal School Jhajjar, principal went to both the banks (SBI and Canara Bank) and took question papers. “Paper from Canara bank were distributed to the candidates. But SBI paper had to be distributed not Canara bank,” he said.

The bench asked, “How did Jhajjar centre-in-charge go to Canara bank and get the papers at all when SBI paper had to be distributed?”

The apex court was hearing a batch of pleas seeking direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and to conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the test held.

Aspirants had approached the top court and raised the issue of leakage of question paper, awarding compensatory marks and anomaly in question of NEET-UG.

NEET-UG examination, conducted by NTA, is the pathway for admissions into MBBS, BDS and AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.

The NEET-UG, 2024 was held across 4,750 centres on May 5 and around 24 lakh candidates appeared in it.