Pradhan seeks cooperation of states, UTs for fair and smooth re-examination
NEW DELHI, May 25: It’s sad that the NTA has not learnt lessons from the earlier NEET paper leak, the Supreme Court said on Monday as it sought the response of the Centre, NTA and CBI on pleas for the replacement of the testing agency with a robust and autonomous body to conduct the medical entrance exam.
A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe directed that a copy of the petitions be served to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, besides other parties, and asked the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is responsible for conducting the NEET exam, to file an affidavit by Thursday on compliance of directions issued by the court in 2024.
“It’s sad that they have not learnt their lessons. The matter travelled to this court earlier also. There was a committee, a monitoring committee which made some recommendations, and they were accepted. We want the NTA to file an affidavit on the steps taken for compliance of recommendations suggested by the committee,” the bench said.
The top court, which issued notice on a plea filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), through lawyer Tanvi Dubey, said it is tagging all similar matters together.
It directed the Centre-appointed committee led by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan for the overhaul of the functioning of the NTA to detail the steps taken in compliance with its directions.
All the parties were directed to file their responses within three days by the court, which listed the matter for further hearing on Friday.
The medical body has urged the top court for direct restructuring or replacement of NTA with a robust and autonomous system to conduct NEET-UG, citing a “direct assault” on the fundamental rights of over 22 lakh students through recurring paper leaks.
It has also sought a direction to appoint a high-powered monitoring committee until a fresh body is formally constituted to oversee the re-examination.
It further said the committee should comprise a retired Supreme Court judge as the chair, along with a cybersecurity expert and a forensic scientist, to ensure that no further leaks occur.
The undergraduate-level National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) held on May 3 by the NTA for admissions to medical education programmes was cancelled on May 12 amid allegations of paper leak, which are now being probed by the CBI.
In 2024, after the question paper leak of the NEET-UG examination, the top court had refused to cancel the exam but passed various directions aimed at tackling paper leaks and also a criterion for cancelling public exams.The top court had expanded the mandate of the Radhakrishnan committee and directed it to recommend reforms on examination security, transportation of papers, CCTV surveillance, candidate verification, encryption protocols, technological safeguards, real-time monitoring, grievance redressal and adoption of international best practices.
After the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2026 examination on May 12, several petitions have been filed in the apex court.
EDUCATION MINISTER SEEKS COOPERATION
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday wrote to chief ministers, lieutenant governors and administrators of states and Union Territories, seeking their cooperation for the smooth and fair conduct of the NEET-UG re-examination scheduled on June 21.
In view of the prevailing heatwave conditions, Pradhan urged states and UTs to ensure the availability of essential facilities at examination centres for the convenience and well-being of candidates, the Education Ministry said in a statement.“In view of the prevailing heatwave conditions, I request you to kindly issue appropriate instructions to the district authorities and all schools, colleges, universities and other institutions hosting the examination in your State/UT to ensure the availability of essential basic amenities for the convenience of candidates,” he said in the letter. (PTI)
