NEET-UG paper leak case: Supreme Court to hear petition for retest for top 3.5 lakh scorers

NEET-UG petitioners seek retest for top scorers due to paper leak, alleging unfair advantage and corruption in the system.

After the National Testing Agency (NTA) made public scores of over 23 lakh candidates who appeared for the NEET-UG medical entrance exam, petitioners in the paper leak case have filed an Intervention Application (IA) in the Supreme Court, requesting a retest for the nearly 3.5 lakh top scorers in the test. The court is slated to hear the matter on Monday. 

The petitioners, in the IA said they too have scored fairly high marks on the test — from 650 to 680 out of the total 720 marks. The petitioners further said they are aware that conducting a retest is not an easy task, and has several ramifications and therefore a practical solution needs to be thought of. “Of the 24 lakh who appeared in the examination, 13 lakh have qualified. The total number of medical seats available is around 1,08,915. The retest, therefore, need only be conducted twice or thrice the number of seats available. That would reduce the cost in terms of time, money and manpower, to reasonable limits,” the application stated. 

“The NEET-UG 2024 Examination which is wholly vitiated can be treated as NEET 2024 Preliminary Examination. The further test to be conducted can be treated as the NEET-UG 2024 Final Examination,” it further stated. 

The petitioners, many of whom are “students from humble backgrounds and cannot afford a private MBBS seat” costing anywhere between ₹50 lakh to ₹1 crore, allege that both the medical education and paper leak industries are worth crores of rupees. “There are only around 55,000 seats in government medical colleges, which alone students from humble backgrounds, like the petitioners, can aspire to,” the application states. 

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Further, they pointed out that 75% of NTA’s work is outsourced. “Besides the permanent officials/staff, 426 are from outside, 45 on deputation, 147 on contract basis and another 325 entirely outsourced through private agencies. The current system is unthinkably faulty.”

The petitioners also alleged that that those involved with the paper leak industry are “well connected” and their links with officials within the NTA are yet to be exposed.