The Supreme Court will today hear petitions related to alleged irregularities in the NEET UG medical exam. A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Mishra will hear as many as 40 pleas in the case. These include cases filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA) seeking to transfer pending cases against it in various High Courts to the Supreme Court to avoid multiplicity of litigation.

The apex court on July 11 deferred the hearing of petitions to July 18. These petitions included demands for the cancellation of the examination, conducting a re-examination, and probing the malpractices in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024.

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The bench stated that it had received a status report from the CBI on the progress made in investigating the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the examination. In an additional affidavit filed in the Supreme Court last week, the Centre said that the data analysis of the medical entrance exam results was conducted by IIT Madras, which had denied any irregularities.

In their response, the petitioners stated that the NTA had tried to mislead the court by submitting an incomplete report from IIT Madras with rudimentary data and analysis. It claimed that 61 out of the top 100 students scored 720/720 marks, yet the report does not highlight any anomalies.

The top court earlier noted that the sanctity of the exam was indeed compromised and re-exam was the last resort, which would be decided based on the bandwidth of the paper leak. It has asked the Centre, CBI and the NTA to file affidavits on the status of probe in the case.

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The CBI has submitted a status report to the Supreme Court. The status report, submitted in a sealed cover, details the agency's findings on the purported exam paper leak in Bihar and the alleged irregularities at exam centers in Gujarat and Rajasthan.