NEET 2024 SC Hearing Live: Matter resumes tomorrow, IIT Delhi to give Physics correct answer; latest updates

"As indicated in the question as framed of which students had to select one option as their answer. In order to resolve the issue as regards the correct answer, we are of the considered view that an expert opinion should be sought from IIT Delhi. We request the Director of IIT Delhi to constitute a team of three experts of the subject concerned. The expert team constituted by the Director is requested to formulate the opinion on the correct option and remit the opinion to the Registrar by 12 noon tomorrow. Registrar General is requested to communicate the order to the IIT Delhi Director so that expeditious steps for the preparation of the opinion can be taken," said CJI. 

Advocate Tanvi Dubey, representing Maharashtra petitioners, opposed the re-test, emphasizing the significant difficulties it would impose on students who have invested nearly eight years of effort.

CJI suggests appointing an expert committee to determine the correct answer for question 19, with a decision likely to be available by tomorrow, July 23. 

Senior advocate Mukta Gupta presents the case of a petitioner with hyperhidrosis who was not permitted to use a handkerchief during the exam. As per the advocate, the petitioner could not even writer his or her roll number correctly.

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) asks the remaining lawyers advocating for a re-test to submit their arguments in writing.

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) states that it was incorrect to consider both options as correct. The exam must have a single correct answer, and both options cannot be accepted simultaneously.

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) informs that according to instructions, the most recent NCERT edition should be followed. Therefore, if option 4 is correct as per the latest edition, those who selected option 2 should not receive full marks.

Counsel argues that the NTA's policy of awarding marks for any answer when two options are deemed correct is problematic. The counsel also pointed that it is not possible to assume that there are two correct answers and marks will be awarded for both.

A counsel representing a petitioner who scored 711 marks challenges the NTA's scoring of a question with unclear options. According to the counsel, the petitioner, having avoided the question due to its ambiguity, would have ranked higher or may have topped if the NTA had not awarded full marks to those who attempted it. 

Counsel objects to the NTA's decision to open a 24-hour registration window on April 9, which allowed an additional 24,000 students to register for NEET. They argue that those who missed the original deadline should not be granted an extra chance.

Counsel questions, "How did the NTA come up with the figure of 1,563 students on June 4, when on May 5, they talked about only one centre in Sawai Madhavpur? "

In NEET case hearing today, counsel quotes from "Tanvi Sarwal" case, "Even if, one undeserving candidate, a beneficiary of such illegal machination, though undetected is retained in the process it would be in denial of, the claim of more deserving candidates".

Counsel quotes from "Tanvi Sarwal" case, "We are aware, that the abrogation of the examination, would result in some inconvenience to all concerned and that same extra time would be consumed for holding a fresh examination with renewed efforts therefor. This however, according to us, is the price, the stakeholders would have to suffer in order to maintain the impeccable and irrefutable sanctity and credibility of a process of examination, to assess the innate worth and capability of the participating candidates for being assigned inter se merit positions commensurate to their performance based on genuine and sincere endeavours."

Senior Advocate Mathews Nedumpara requested to treat this (NEET UG 2024) as a preliminary examination and conduct a main exam. He said that the ‘bell chart’ submitted by IIT Madras is ‘fraud’. “Re-test is a question of common sense, prudence,” he added.

Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde said: “What comes out is that there is an organized gang, with a prior history of leaking papers. It is their business model. Leaked paper is a time-limited commodity. Everybody to whom the leaked paper goes will try to maximise the profits. The fact is that we cannot tell the students that it was a fair exam.”

Referring to the argument that the NEET toppers increased due to syllabus cut, Hegde said: “If the syllabus had been easy, then rising tide raises all boats together. In that magic zone above 650, there are more than 50,000 students. This is a huge red flag. Your lordships on this date do not know how many got into the system. Each govt seat is govt spending a crore per student per year."

Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde told the Supreme Court: “Admittedly there has been a leak from Hazaribagh. It was caught at Patna. We do not know today where all it leaked. Investigation reports say some of the messages went to about 100 people. We do not know about the extent of the leak. Timing of the leak, there is some certainty that it did not happen on the morning of 5th. It happened at least on the night of May 4th or prior to that.”

Senior Advocate Hooda summed up his argument and said: "Their manner of conducting the exam is so brutal that it does not inspire confidence at all. At every stage there is a breach."

Hooda submitted that “The NEET paper leak happened on May 3 or prior. This is the handiwork of a gang, which has been involved in paper leaks of other exams. Sanjeev Mukhiya from Nalanda district in Bihar is the alleged mastermind behind the leak… it was not a localised incident.”

Reiterating that the NTA has not given the serial number of the exam centres, Hooda said: “They have withheld All India Rank and given 5,000 PDF in the name of declaring results.”

CJI interrupted and said that it has been established that the NEET question paper was ferried in the e-rickshaw. 

The CJI noted that the Senior Advocate Hooda has pointed out issues like "no clarity on when the OMR sheets are sealed, time gap between the exam and the deposit of OMR sheets, lack of address verification". The bench resumes NEET hearing. 

The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra resumes NEET hearing. 

Leader of opposition, Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha said: "There was a very serious problem in the examination system, not just with NEET but all major examinations. Noting that millions of students are concerned, he claimed, "if you are rich and if you have money, you can buy the Indian examination system," as per the PTI report. 

The bench rises for lunch break.

Citing the NEET result data, Advocate Hooda said: “This shows systemic failure. And these are not students from Sikar. They have not taken coaching in Sikar. One girl from Gujarat went all the way to Belagavi in Karnataka and got 705 marks, but she failed in 12th.”

Senior advocate said: “There is one station in Rajkot, where 12 students are above 700. 115 above 650 marks. There is something special about this Centre.” In Sikar, 8 scored above 700, 69 candidates got above 650, 115 obtained above 600, and 241 scored above 550.” Adding to this, advocate Sanjay Hegde said, “6 people per 1000 on an average is above 650 marks on a national level. That should be the reference point. One in 4 students getting that in Sikar.”

"The difference in data declared on 4th of June and 20th of July - see Bihar -there is difference of 13,000 in the number of appearances. So many numbers reduced," Hooda added. 

As per NTA NEET result data, “There are certain centres which are doing exceedingly well. Not students but centres. Both Kota and Sikar have an equal number of students appearing. If we calculate top centres in the country where students get more that 650 marks, 38 out of 50 centres are only from Sikar,” Hooda highlighted. And other 6 from 6 are from Mahendragarh and Rewari. 

“In Sikar, there are 49 centres. Out of 49, one is Kendriya Vidyalalaya. Rest all are private schools. All their coordinators, invigilators are private individuals.  They have shown photos of a school in a village where exam was conducted, it does not even have a boundary wall,” Hooda said.

Meanwhile, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on the first day of monsoon Parliament session said: “There is no evidence of paper leak in the last seven years. There are incidents but a case is ongoing in SC. All the questions have been put in front of the SC. More than 240 exams have been conducted, more than 5 crore students have appeared…There is only a singular incidence in Patna. Bihar police and CBI are taking proactive action in that.”

Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

NEET SC Hearing | “With regard to Jhajjar, in first response they said Canara bank paper was given and evaluated. Now they say no grace marks was given and extra time was given. Who took the decision?” Hooda said, adding that the student who got 719 marks and NEET rank of 68 in Hardayal school for rank 58,000 in retest. “Now they don't know whether Canara bank paper or SBI paper was given. On 4th June, ony SBI key was given. On 4th June, they did not disclose grace marks.” he added.

The CJI asked “How does Canara bank know the person is the right person to be given the papers? Who issue the letter of authorisation?” The NTA replied that the director general of NTA issues the authorisation to city coordinators. The coordinator took the papers from banks and distributed Canara bank papers to three centres in Jhajjar. “From two, it was withdrawn, when he realised the mistake and at the other centre it continued,” he said.

The NTA informed the apex court that the 1,563 candidates who were awarded grace marks were spread across 8 exam centres. 

The NTA counsel informed the Supreme Court that the number of candidates who got Canara bank paper is slightly over 3,000. Wrong booklets (from Canara bank) was distributed in 8 exam centres and the grace marks were awarded to candidates in some centres to compensate for the loss of time, where the wrong booklet was withdrawn midway and the correct booklet was distributed later. Hooda interrupted and said the NTA has not issued a separate answer key for Canara bank paper. 

Explaining the conduct of NEET exam in Hardayal School Jhajjar, Hooda said that the principal took papers from bot SBI an Canara bank, however, paper from Canara bank was distributed to students. Of the total students who appeared, six students scored perfect 720 and two got 719 and 718. Later, the NTA clarified that they were given grace marks as there was delay. However, the principal said that there was no delay in distributing the paper. 

The NTA counsel told the Supreme Court that Jhajjar was a new centre. "Perhaps the city coordinator may not have seen the message, as a result it got picked up from both places. It is a mistake on the part of coordinator and the bank."

Stating that there is no material to show the NEET paper leak was widespread, the CJI said: “We have to see if the leak is localised and confined only to Hazaribagh and Patna or whether it is widespread and systematic.”

On this, advocate Hooda pointed out that the NEET question paper was dispatched on April 24 and the papers reached the bank on May 3, which means between April 24 to May 3, the NEET question paper remained in the hands of private companies. 

CJI observed that “All problem solvers are students. None of them are professors.” The CBI on Saturday arrested one of the masterminds, a BTech graduate from NIT-Jamshedpur, in the NEET-UG paper leak case. The other two MBBS students arrested are from a medical school in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.

The Solicitor General informed that the ‘solvers’ bifurcated the NEET papers and each had 25-30 questions. 25 questions, with computers and books, can be easily solved. “As and when they started solving the papers, they started giving. They did not give in one go. First was Biology, then Physics and Chemistry,” he added.

The CJI noted: "If the leak has taken place on the night of the (May) 4th, then obviously the leak did not took place not at the process of transportation, and it took place prior, at the strong room vault."

Confession of accused Awadhesh Kumar in NEET paper leak case was shared on social media. “My son was made to memorize the NEET question paper and answers. The deal was struck for Rs 40 lakh and two blank cheques were given,” the statement read.

Bihar EOU NEET paper leak confession report. (Source: X/ @UtkarshSingh_)

Advocate Hood submitted the statements of Nitesh Kumar, Amit Anand, and Sikander Prasad. “Their 161 statements indicate that the leak is much prior to the examination,” he told the Supreme Court. The Solicitor General argued that Amit Anand is a middleman. "He was collecting the students on the night of 4th so that he can get the papers on the 5th. Nitish Kumar was on the place where the papers were received on the 5th," he said.

The Supreme Court NEET 2024 is live streaming on the link given below. 

Bihar police report indicate that the NEET question paper was leaked to students on May 4. "Leak did not happen on the morning of May 5 as was suggested," Senior advocate Hooda informed. "Leak happened prior to the deposit of the question papers with the respective banks. That is 3rd of May or prior to that," he said. He referred to the statement of Anurag Yadav recorded by Bihar police.

Advocate Hooda reiterated that the NEET question paper was ferried in e-rickshaws. On this, the CJI said: “Question paper was being ferried in an e-rickshaws, there is no doubt about that. But they say the photograph is of OMR sheet. Ferrying of paper in e-rickshaws is established.”

Senior advocate Hooda told the Supreme Court that the NTA has published the results. “They have not given All India Rank but they have given only centre-wise and city-wise. They have withheld All India Rank and serial number of the exam centres.”

The Supreme Court has commenced the NEET UG hearing 2024. 

NEET SC hearing Live Updates. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) 

A student from Gujarat, who failed in Class 12 board exams scored 705 out of 720 in the NEET UG 2024. the Times of India reported. It said that they were unable to confirm if the marksheets belonged to the same person. Local sources informed the TOI that student was registered as a 'dummy' candidate at a nearby school.

Amid the NEET controversy, two sets of criticism emerged. "One set of critics assumes it is possible to have a fair exam on this scale and with our dizzying levels of diversity, and that the failure to conduct one is the NTA’s main problem. For the second set, the entire policy is a problem, including the very existence of NEET and exams like it, as well as the bodies that conduct them." Read - NEET was far from fair even before this year's grace marks, paper-leak controversies 

Here’s the NEET results of Gujarat, which hosts the centre with such a large number of 600+ scorers.

Among candidates who appeared for the exam at School of Engineering, RK University, Rajkot, 12 scored above 700 marks, one scored 720, two got 710, four received 705, one got 704, one with 701, and three with 700.

Moreover, as many as 259 aspirants scored more than 600 marks while 110 students managed to score above 650 marks in the exam. 48 candidates also cleared the exam with over 680 marks.

READ - 259 NEET candidates scored above 600 at Rajkot centre; what NEET result data shows

According to doctor and activist Vivek Pandey, a NEET exam centre in Sikar – Aravali Public School, witnessed 83 candidates scoring over 600 marks. Notably, Sikar is a budding coaching centre for NEET. Whereas, in Vidya Bharati Public School, right emerged as 700+ scorers.

• At exam center Mangal Chand Didwaniya Vidya Mandir, four students grabbed more than 700 marks, 45 scored above 650 marks, 92 students exceeded 600 marks, and 200 managed to score over 500 marks. Andaman NEET UG 2024 topper Yogta Kumari Yadav took the exam from this very centre.
• An MBBS student, Abhishek Gupta, was caught impersonating a NEET aspirant at the Master Adityendra School, Bharatpur, Rajasthan examination centre.

As per the NEET revised results 2024 published by the NTA, 81,550 candidates obtained above 600 in the NEET UG 2024 exam. 

NEET SC Hearing: The Supreme Court questioned the NEET UG paper leak claims on social media platform ‘Telegram’ and said: “You have to bear in mind that the idea of somebody doing this was not to make a national charade. People did it for money. So, it was not to bring disrepute to the exam and somebody was doing it to make money which is evident.”

NEET UG cut-offs trends for MBBS admission in government medical colleges is given in the table below.

The NTA published the city and centre-wise NEET UG 2024 results on Saturday at 12 noon. Candidates were allowed to download the NEET score card 2024 details from the official website, exams.nta.ac.in/NEET/. 

The NEET counselling process will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July, the NTA informed the Centre. However, if any candidate is found to have been the beneficiary of any malpractice, candidature of such person would be cancelled. The MCC had also asked medical colleges to enter seat matrix by July 20.

The NEET matter will be heard by the Supreme Court shortly. The bench will assemble at 10.30 am and is likely to o pronounce final verdict on NEET cancellation and retest today. 

The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) is expected to begin the NEET UG counselling 2024 from July 24 for admission into MBBS, BDS, and other undergraduate medical courses, the Centre in a affidavit informed the top court. The MCC NEET counselling schedule will be notified on the official website, mcc.nic.in.  

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud on July 18 noted: "There are two possibilities (of NEET paper leak). One the paper gets leaked before the custody of banks. That means, it happened before May 3. Second, the leak happened when the papers left the banks and were bound for the centre. Alternative hypothesis is that leak happened in custody of banks is possible according to you, which means May 3. Between May 3 and May 5 is a long interval.”

READ - NEET SC hearing: Telegram, e-rickshaw, banks, petitioners list possibilities of paper leak

The NEET result data revealed that no student from the Hardayal Public School in Bahadurgarh, Haryana centre scored above 682 marks. This comes as a contrast to the previous results wherein 6 candidates from the centre scored a perfect 720 marks. A total number of 494 students appeared for the exam, of which only one obtained 682 and only 13 scored above 600. 

According to the NEET UG city and centre-wise data published by the NTA, over 2,250 candidates have scored zero marks, while over 9,400 candidates have scored marks in negative. "There are several candidates at the centre under scanner in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh who have scored less than zero marks. While there are multiple candidates from few centres who have scored zero marks, no clusters are seen as the number of such candidates from each centre is not very high," the PTI reported.

“NTA received few representations and Court Cases from the candidates of NEET (UG) 2024 raising concerns of loss of time during the conduct of the examination on 05.05.2024. Such cases/representations were considered by NTA and the normalisation formula, which has been devised and adopted by the Hon'ble Apex Court, vide its Judgment dated 13.06.2018, was implemented to address the loss of time faced by the candidates of NEET (UG) 2024,” the NTA clarified. 

On June 13, the Centre told the Supreme Court that the grace marks awarded to candidates to compensate for the time loss has been withdrawn. The decision came after a large number of students sought NEET UG cancellation alleging irregularities. Of the total number of 1,563 candidates who got grace marks, six from Haryana shared AIR 1 along with 61 others in NEET results.

The CBI on Saturday arrested one of the masterminds, a BTech graduate from NIT-Jamshedpur, in the NEET-UG paper leak case and two MBBS students who allegedly acted as "solvers", officials said, as per the PTI report. With the fresh arrests, the total number of people held so far in six cases related to the alleged irregularities has now reached 21.

Following the Supreme Court order dated July 18, the NTA published the detailed city and centre-wise NEET results 2024 to give clarity on the marks secured by aspirants. The court had also asked the testing agency to mask the identity of students while uploading the NEET UG results. Careers360 analysed the NTA data and found 2,321 candidates secured score above 700 out of 720. Here's the details on number of candidates who obtained NEET top marks. 

• Total students who appeared in NEET UG 2024: 23,33,162
• Students to score over 700: 2,321
• Students to score over 650: 30,204
• Students to score over 600: 81,550

Here’s what the NTA data shows.

Total students who appeared from Sikar: 27,216

Total students to score over 700: 149

Total students to score over 650: 2,037

Total students to score over 600: 4,297

Careers360 analysed the NEET results and found that 7.48% of students writing the NEET UG 2024 in Sikar secured a score of 650 and above. Moreover, the average score of candidates across Sikar is 362, which is very high considering the qualifying marks is at the 50th percentile, 164. READ MORE.

The NTA has filed a fresh affidavit refuting petitioners’ allegation of conflict of interest on the part of IIT-M Director, who prepared the data analytics report, the Live Law reported. The NTA says director of the IIT holding JEE Advanced) in a particular year is an ex-officio member of the NTA governing body. IIT Madras held JEE Advanced this year. "However, core functions of the NTA are carried out by the Managing Committee of the NTA. Governing Body has role only on policy matters."

"In any case, the said IIT-Director had nominated another professor to attend the Governing Body meetings and the nominee attended the last meeting in December 2023. The IIT Director who made the report hasn’t attended any NTA General Body meeting after December 2022," the report said.

NTA files fresh affidavit. (Image: Careers360)

The suspicion on irregularities surfaced after an unprecedented number of 67 candidates scored top marks in NEET UG 2024. After the grace mark, which was awarded to compensate the time loss faced by candidates, was withdrawn, the number of NEET toppers dropped down to 61. The NTA also informed that a total of 1,563 candidates were awarded grace marks. Later, as per the Supreme Court order a NEET re-exam was held for these candidates, however, only 813 of them took the exam. 

The Union government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) has been opposing the request for cancelling NEET as scrapping the exam would be "counterproductive" and "seriously jeopardise" lakhs of honest candidates in the absence of any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality.

The full form of NEET is National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG). This year, more than 23.33 lakh students appeared for the medical entrance exam on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 overseas. The exam is held by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.

The NTA had informed the Supreme Court that the NEET UG counselling 2024 for MBBS, BDS admissions will be held by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) in the third of July; likely from July 24. 

The Supreme Court will hear over 40 petitions against the NEET paper leak and irregularities in the medical entrance exam today. The bench comprising of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud will hear the matter on priority at 10.30 am today.