Supreme Court also stayed further proceedings on some pleas on NEET UG 2024 examination pending before different high courts in the country.
The Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses from the Centre, the National Testing Agency (NTA) and others on petitions, including those seeking the scrapping of the NEET-UG 2024 exam and a court-monitored probe into the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance test.
Meanwhile, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi attacked the Centre over the issue saying, the education system has been captured by the BJP’s parent organisation. Addressing a press conference on the NEET issue and UGC-NET exam cancellation, he said, “The reason behind paper leaks is that the education system has been captured by the BJP’s parent organisation. Till the time this is not reversed, paper leaks will go on. Modi ji has facilitated this capture. It is an anti-national activity.”
WATCH Delhi | On NEET issue & UGC-NET exam cancellation, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi says, “The reason behind paper leaks is that the education system has been captured by the BJP’s parent organisation. Till the time this is not reversed, paper leaks will go on. Modi ji has… pic.twitter.com/zXfYVF0CFh
— ANI (@ANI) June 20, 2024
The apex court also stayed further proceedings on some pleas on the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate)-2024 examination pending before different high courts in the country. A vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti issued notices to the parties seeking their responses on four separate pleas filed by the NTA seeking transfer of some pending petitions, including those concerning alleged paper leak, from the high courts to the apex court.
It also dealt with several other petitions, including the one filed by 20 students who had appeared in the medical entrance test and are seeking scrapping of the exam which was held on May 5. They have also sought a direction to the NTA and others to conduct the test afresh. The bench, which issued notices to the Centre, NTA and others seeking their responses on these petitions, said the pleas would be heard on July 8 along with other pending matters concerning the NEET-UG 2024.
The NTA conducts the all India pre-medical entrance test. While hearing separate petitions raising grievances over the NEET-UG 2024, the apex court had last week sought responses from the Centre and the NTA on a plea for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into allegations of question paper leak and other irregularities in the exam.
The Centre and the NTA had on June 13 told the top court that they had cancelled the grace marks given to 1,563 candidates who took the examination for admission to MBBS and other such courses.
They will have the option to either take a retest or forgo the compensatory marks awarded to them for the loss of time, the Centre had said. The examination was held on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates took it. The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the evaluation of the answer sheets got completed earlier.
The NEET-UG examination is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
(With inputs from PTI)