June 20th 2024.
The Supreme Court of India has put a temporary halt on the ongoing proceedings in various High Courts across the country regarding the alleged leak of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) paper. This decision came on Thursday, after the National Testing Agency (NTA) filed transfer petitions seeking to move the cases to the apex court. The Vacation Bench, headed by Justice Vikram Nath, has ordered a stay on the proceedings until the next date of listing.
During the hearing, the counsel representing NTA informed the Bench, which also included Justice SVN Bhatti, that High Courts were dealing with multiple petitions alleging irregularities in the NEET exam, despite the Supreme Court already issuing a notice in a similar transfer petition last week. Taking this into consideration, the top court has further directed, "Issue notice returnable by July 8, 2024... In the meantime, all further proceedings before the High Court shall remain stayed."
The batch of transfer petitions, along with other pleas seeking cancellation of the exam, will now be heard on July 8. Earlier, on June 14, the Supreme Court had taken notice of NTA's request to transfer a petition pending before the Delhi High Court to the apex court. The top court had also asked the petitioner, who had filed a writ petition in the Delhi HC alleging a paper leak in the NEET exam, to respond to NTA's transfer plea.
It is worth noting that the issue of granting grace marks in the NEET exam has already been settled by the Supreme Court. This was after NTA submitted the scorecards of 1,563 candidates who were initially given compensatory marks for the loss of time during the exam. However, those marks were later withdrawn and cancelled. These candidates were then given the option to either appear in a re-test on June 23 or participate in the counselling process based on their actual marks without any normalization.
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