NEET-UG sanctity breach beyond doubt, retest if it's systemic: Apex Court

Observing that the "sanctity" of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) exam (NEET) has been "breached is beyond doubt", the Supreme Court on Monday said that the "question is how widespread is the breach".

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud made this observation in response to demand for re-examination of NEET-UG by some of the petitioners.

The bench observed that it would have to determine if the breach was "systemic" to warrant a retest. "We don't live in an ideal world. Before we order a retest, we must be careful about the nature of the leak. We are conscious of the fact that we are dealing with the future of 23 lakh students," the CJI verbally remarked.

"In a situation where the sanctity of examination affects the entirety of the process and it is not possible to segregate beneficiaries of wrongdoing from the untainted, it may be necessary to order a re-examination," the CJI added.

Speaking for the bench, the CJI said: "On the contrary where the breach is confined to specific areas or centres and it is possible to identify the beneficiaries (students) of wrongdoing it may not be appropriate to have a retest particularly for an examination of such wide scale involving 23 lakh students."

Observing that it cannot be denied that there were irregularities in the NEET-UG examination held on May 5, the SC told the central government to "not be in self-denial."

The bench said that it would decide whether to order a retest on the basis of three parameters: firstly, whether the alleged breach of examination took place at systemic level; secondly, whether the nature of breach is such that it affects the sanctity of the entire examination process and lastly, whether it is possible to segregate the beneficiaries (students) of fraud from the untainted students.

Posting the matter for resumed hearing on July 11, SC directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to supply the following details: firstly, the nature of the leak and centres where the leak took place. Secondly, the lag of time between occurrence of leak and conduct of examination. Thirdly, when the leak of question papers first took place. Fourthly, the manner in which the question papers were leaked and disseminated. Lastly, the time duration between the occurrence of leak and actual conduct of examination which took place at 2 pm on May 5.

During the hearing, the CJI verbally asked: "Is there any audit being conducted by the government to determine what went wrong in the NTA?"

The court has also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the agency investigating irregularities in the exam, to submit a status report (by July 11) on the "status of the investigation and the material which has come to light during investigation which would have a bearing on when the leak first took place".

The bench further directed the central government and NTA to apprise the court about whether it would be feasible for the government's cyber forensics unit to use data analytics to identify suspicious cases, to segregate tainted students from the untainted students.

Pertinently, the bench remarked that it needs to be determined if the leak took place electronically i.e., through Telegram, WhatsApp - social media or electronic means of communication. For, the bench added, that such leak spreads like wildfire. On the other hand, we must also balance it out - about the time at which the leak takes place. If it is more or less, the morning of the 5th (May5), the time between leak and when students have to go for exam is very limited, the bench added.

SC also directed NTA to inform the bench about steps taken to identify beneficiaries of the leak, the steps taken by the NTA to identify the centres/ cities where the leak took place, and the modalities followed to identify beneficiaries of the leak.

Further, to ensure that such irregularities do not recur in future, the bench said that "it would be necessary for the government to consider setting up a multi-disciplinary committee to ensure due measures are taken to obviate further breaches in NEET in the future". The bench asked the Centre to share details of such a committee, if already constituted so that the top court can examine the composition of the committee. The bench said that it would examine whether the composition of such a committee needs to be "sufficiently enhanced to bring a pool of talent".