"So sad NTA has not learnt its lesson yet": Top Court on NEET paper leak case

The Supreme Court on Monday said it was sad that NTA has not learn lessons from the earlier NEET paper leak as it sought response from the Centre, NTA and CBI on pleas for replacement of the testing agency with a robust and autonomous body to conduct the medical entrance exam. A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe directed that copy of petitions be served to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta besides other parties and asked the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is responsible for conducting the NEET exam, to file an affidavit by Thursday on compliance of directions issued by the court in 2024. "It's sad that they have not learnt their lessons. The matter travelled to this court earlier also. There was a committee, a monitoring committee which made some recommendations and they were accepted. We want NTA to file an affidavit on the steps taken for compliance of recommendations suggested by the committee,” the bench said.

The top court, which issued notice on a plea filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), through lawyer Tanvi Dubey said it is tagging all the similar matters together. It directed the Centre-appointed committee led by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan for overhaul of the functioning of the NTA to detail the steps taken for compliance of its directions. The medical body has urged the top court for direct restructuring or replacement of NTA with a robust and autonomous system to conduct NEET-UG, citing a "direct assault" on the fundamental rights of over 22.7 lakh students through recurring paper leaks. It has also sought a direction to appoint a high-powered monitoring committee until a fresh body is formally constituted to oversee the re-examination. It further said the committee should comprise a retired Supreme Court judge as the chair, along with a cybersecurity expert and a forensic scientist, to ensure that no further leaks occur.

The undergraduate-level National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) held on May 3 by the NTA for admissions to medical education programmes was cancelled on May 12 amid allegations of paper leak, which are now being probed by the CBI.