New Delhi: The National Testing Agency told the Supreme Court Friday that cancellation of the controversy-ridden NEET-UG 2024 examination would be hugely counterproductive and significantly harmful to the larger public interest, especially to the career prospects of those who cleared it.
In its affidavit filed in response to one of the petitions in the top court, the NTA, which conducts the NEET-UG examination, said the alleged incident/attempt of leak does not seem to have any bearing on the conduct of the entire examination held May 5, as the number of candidates found to be involved by the investigating agencies is minuscule compared to number of candidates who appeared.
“The cancellation of the entire examination on the basis of the aforesaid factor, would be hugely counterproductive and significantly harmful to the larger public interest, especially to the career prospects of the qualified candidates,” it said.
The agency said the entirety of NEET-UG 2024 exam was carried out fairly and with due confidentiality without any illegal practices and the claim of “mass malpractice” during the exam is “completely unfounded, misleading and lacks any basis”.
Scrapping the NEET-UG, 2024 exam in entirety would “seriously jeopardise” lakhs of honest candidates and not be rational in the absence of any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality, the Centre also told the apex court Friday in a separate affidavit.
“It is submitted that the present case is not a case wherein the entire examination process conducted across 4,750 Centers in 571 cities (including 14 cities abroad) has suffered systematic failure, as it has not been vitiated by all pervasive factors of unfair means or paper leak etc,” the agency said.
“It is submitted that if the entire examination process is cancelled without there being any tangible factors warranting such actions it would be highly detrimental to the larger public interest involving the academic career of lakhs of students who have attempted the examination fairly without any wrongdoing or even an allegation of wrongdoing,” the NTA further said.
It said the alleged irregularities were confined to certain centres in two cities–Patna and Godhra.
The NTA said other individual instances of alleged use of unfair means by certain candidates are very few and do not have any co-relation with the purported malpractices which are referred to by the petitioners.
Referring to the measures adopted by the NTA to ensure the integrity of the examination process, the agency said 63 cases of use of unfair means were reported, and a committee submitted its recommendations for appropriate action.
“The committee, after due consideration and examination, recommended for the withholding of the results of 33 candidates, debarment of 22 candidates up to 3 years, and declaring the result of nine candidates. Examination functionaries of NEET (UG) 2024 have also registered 13 FIRs in cases of unfair means at different examination centres,” the NTA said.
It added that the process of finalisation and allocation of the examination centres for NEET UG was comprehensive and squarely planned to ensure smooth and fair conduct of the test.
“Therefore, the claim of ‘mass malpractice’ during the NEET Exam is completely unfounded, misleading, and lacks any basis,” it said.
It added that the NTA had adopted the best possible measures to ensure that the integrity and sanctity of the examination was not impacted or breached in any manner.
The affidavit said the conduct of the examination alone is within the domain of the NTA and activities which are in the realm of commission of offences by the criminals do not come under its purview. They fall within the domain and purview of law enforcement agencies, it said.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) was conducted May 5 by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses.
The top court is scheduled to hear July 8 a batch of pleas, including those alleging irregularities in the examination held May 5 and seeking a direction that it be held afresh.
PTI