There will be no re-test for the 2024 NEET-UG exam, the Supreme Court said Tuesday, reasoning there is no data to suggest a “systemic breach” or that the “sanctity” of the examination, following two localised leaks of the question paper, had been affected.
A bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said an order to conduct a re-test – for an exam for 23.33 lakh aspiring medical professionals, many of whom travelled hundreds of kilometres from hometowns to exam centres – would have “big consequences”.
“At the present stage it is difficult to come to a conclusion that the entire system has been vitiated… or that the sanctity of the exam has been breached,” the court said.
The Chief Justice acknowledged an incontrovertible fact – the question paper had been leaked for at least two exam centres, in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh and Patna in Bihar.
The Hazaribagh leak has been flagged as ‘Ground Zero’ by the CBI, which has been tasked with investigating a nation-wide ‘solver gang’ racket that leaks question papers.