NEET-UG 2024 Paper Leak Row: The Supreme Court on Thursday began hearing a bunch of pleas related to the alleged leak of the medical exam NEET UG 2024. The top court during the hearing told the petitioners seeking cancellation and a re-test, that any order for NEET-UG 2024 re-test "has to be on the concrete footing that the sanctity of the prestigious exam was affected at a very large scale. The top court bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwla and Manoj Misra, asked the plaintiffs to show that the paper leak was "systemic" and affected the entire examination, warranting cancellation. "Re-examination has to be on concrete footing that the sanctity of the entire test was affected," CJI Chandrachud said. The bench is hearing more than 40 pleas, including those filed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET-UG, seeking the transfer of cases pending against it in various high courts regarding the alleged irregularities in the exam to the Supreme Court to avoid multiplicity of litigations.

NEET UG 2024 Supreme Court Hearing Live Updates:

- CJI DY Chandrachud observes that the idea of somebody doing this is not to make a national charade for the NEET exam. People were doing it for money. So, it was not to bring disrepute to the exam and somebody was doing it to make money which is evident now. Mass leakage of paper requires contacts also at that level so that you connect to all such key contacts in different cities etc. Anybody who is making money out of it won't circulate it mass scale.

- The petitioners' counsel stated that a trunk containing exam materials was transported on an open e-rickshaw to Oasis School in Hazaribagh, where it was received by the school principal. The sealed trunk was delivered to him directly, bypassing any bank. The counsel argued that there was a systemic failure by the NTA in conducting the NEET-UG exam, highlighting multiple dimensions of this failure. They further pointed out that the integrity of the question papers was compromised, as they were in the possession of a private courier company for six days and were transported in an e-rickshaw in Hazaribagh. Instead of being delivered to a bank, the driver took the papers directly to the Oasis School.

- The Supreme Court hearing came on the day when the CBI questioned four students from AIIMS Patna in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case. The CBI on Tuesday arrested Pankaj Kumar alias Aditya, a 2017-batch civil engineer from the NIT Jamshedpur, who allegedly stole the NEET-UG paper from the NTA trunk in Hazaribagh.

- The NTA informed the Supreme Court that a total of 15,085 candidates registered for the exam during the reopened window between April 9-10. Solicitor General Tushar Mehra stated that the window was reopened in response to requests from several students. He added that out of these new applicants, only 44 are eligible for admission.

- The Supreme Court has resumed the hearing on the pleas related to the alleged NEET-UG Paper Leak after the lunch break.

- On the issue of the ongoing probe, the bench said, "The CBI probe is on. If what the CBI has told us is revealed, it will affect the investigation and people will become wise." On July 11, the top court adjourned till July 18 the hearing on the pleas, including those seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024, re-test and a probe into alleged malpractices, as the responses of the Centre and the NTA were yet to be received by some parties.

- The Chief Justice of India asked the NTA to provide a city-wise breakdown of the top 100 ranks. The NTA responded that these top candidates are spread across 91 locations, with four of them from a single exam centre in Lucknow. Senior Advocate Hooda noted that the NTA's information did not account for nine candidates from Jaipur who are also in the top 100.

- The Supreme Court inquired with the NTA about the number of students who changed their exam centre out of 23.33 lakh candidates. The NTA responded that 15,000 students utilised the correction window to make changes. They clarified that while students can change their city, they cannot choose their specific exam centre allotted by the system. The NTA also mentioned that the centre allotment occurs only two days before the exam, so no candidate knows their assigned centre in advance.

- CJI Chandrachud on the number of NEET-UG candidates ranked in the top 100 from each state stated, "I have analyzed the results from the top 100 candidates. Andhra Pradesh and Bihar each had 7, Haryana had 4, Delhi had 6, Maharashtra had 4, and Tamil Nadu had 6. This distribution indicates that the top 100 candidates come from 12 states and one Union Territory. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so we need to see how many of the 1563 candidates who took the re-test appear in the top 100. The NTA will provide us with that information."