NEET leak 'minuscule', no need to scrap it: Govt in SC

NEW DELHI: Three days before Supreme Court’s crucial hearing on the NEET-UG controversy, the Centre and National Testing Agency (NTA) have accepted the allegation of irregularities and paper leak in conducting the examination but told the court that scrapping the test was not needed as only a “miniscule” number of students were involved and the interest of 23 lakh students who honestly took the examination could not be jeopardised.
In separate affidavits filed in the apex court, the Centre and NTA concurred that the impact of irregularities/cheating/impersonation/malpractices and paper leak was limited and confined to few centres in Patna and Godhra and that the students involved in it did not get the benefit they were looking for.
“It is submitted that in the absence of any proof of any largescale breach of confidentiality in a pan-India examination, it would not be rational to scrap the entire examination and the results already declared… In any examination, there are competing rights that have been created whereby the interests of a large number of students who have taken the examination without adopting any alleged unfair means must not also be jeopardised. Scrapping the exam in entirety would seriously jeopardise lakhs of honest candidates…” the Centre said in its affidavit.
NTA, too, has taken a similar stand, saying, “the alleged paper leak in Patna... the number of such candidates who have allegedly been helped in this manner against unlawful payment appears to be miniscule”. It further said that action had been taken against all such students and they had been arrested and their results withheld.
“Cancellation of the entire examination has apparently and prima facie not arisen, hence the entire examination pan-India involving more than 23 lakh students does not require to be cancelled,” it said.
“It is submitted that the present case is not a case wherein the entire examination process conducted across at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 cities abroad, has suffered systematic failures as it has not been vitiated by all pervasive factors of unfair means or paper leak etc,” it said.
Referring to data analysis of results of the students who indulged in unfair means, NTA said that they did not make the mark despite irregularities and “would not be entitled for admission to medical colleges of primary importance”.
As the allegations of paper leak and malpractices hit headlines, many students moved Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre and NTA to quash the examination and conduct fresh tests. More than 100 students have filed petitions and counter petitions were also filed against re-test.