“Supreme Court has validated what govt was saying”: Union Minister Lallan Singh over decision on NEET-UG

New Delhi [India], August 2 (ANI): After the Supreme Court reiterated that there was no systemic breach in the NEET-UG 2024 exam beyond Hazaribagh and Patna, Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh said on Friday that the Apex Court’s decision has validated what the government was saying.

“The government was saying a similar thing that the exam has been transparently conducted. If the paper has been leaked somewhere, on an individual basis, the investigative agency is investigating that and taking action. Supreme Court has validated what the government was saying,” he said.

The Supreme Court on Friday said that the National Testing Agency (NTA) should avoid “flip-flops” in conducting the exams and observed that mishaps orchestrated by it were a luxury students cannot afford.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also reiterated that there was no systemic breach in NEET-UG 2024 exam beyond Hazaribagh and Patna and, hence, no retest would be needed with respect to this year’s NEET.

It directed the Centre-appointed committee to recommend and implement top-to-bottom overhauling of the exam process, including security improvements, data protection measures, periodic audits, surprise inspections of exam centres, grievance redressal mechanisms for students and foolproof logistics.

The apex court had on July 23 declined to order a re-exam of NEET UG and today it passed the detailed judgement.

The order of the apex court came on 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 the question of NEET-UG.

NEET-UG examination, conducted by NTA, is the pathway for admissions into MBBS, BDS, 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.