The Supreme Court on Thursday deferred hearing in NEET paper leak case till July 18. During the hearing, the top court noted that some counsels had not got the e-copies of the replies filed by the Centre, NTA in the case, Bar and Bench reported. Earlier, the apex court noted that the sanctity of the exam was indeed compromised and retest might be ordered based on the bandwidth of the malpractice. However, the Centre, in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, opposed a retest, asserting that a report from IIT Madras dismissed claims of widespread wrongdoing.

Besides, the Centre’s affidavit states that the National Testing Agency (NTA) had analysed the marks distribution among NEET-UG candidates at the national, state, city, and centre levels, which indicated that the process was normal and unaffected by external factors.

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As many as 40 petitions have been listed for hearing today. A three-judge bench, led by CJI DY Chandrachud, will hear the matter.

Earlier, during the hearing on July 8, the Supreme Court asked the NTA to make a plethora of disclosures, including when the NEET-UG question paper leak occurred, how the papers were leaked, and the time gap between the leak and the actual examination held on May 5.

The apex court also asked the Centre to submit an affidavit outlining the action taken by the government in the paper leak case. Besides, CBI was also been asked to submit the status report, as the federal probe agency took over the case from Bihar EOW.

The court also acknowledged that there were indeed discrepancies in the conduct of the exam. “The fact that the sanctity of exam has been compromised is beyond doubt. It is an admitted fact that there is a leak, and the nature of the leak is something that we are determining. If it is not extensive, then there is no cancellation. But before we order a retest, we must be conscious of the extent of the leak as we are dealing with 23 lakh students,” the three-judge bench said.

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NEET Counselling From July Third Week:

The Centre told the Supreme Court they intend to begin the counselling process by the third week of July. The process will take place in four phases. It said the counselling of the candidates, who are found to have benefited from any irregularity, would be cancelled.

The counselling was to be conducted on July 8 but was postponed till further notice as the case was sub judice.