SC refuses to entertain a plea seeking cancellation of NEET Exam, says any interference will be detrimental to a large number of students.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea seeking direction to the National Testing Agency to cancel the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2021. The Apex Court said that it can not cancel the exam in which 7.5 lakh people have appeared.
The petition was filed by the NEET aspirants who had requested for conducting fresh NEET exams so as to ensure “fairness and justice”. The aspirants said that the paper was leaked under a criminal conspiracy and malpractices were there in the entrance exam, the initial investigation showed that the NEET 2021 was vitiated by the use of fraudulent means and unfair practices, the plea cited the involvement of coaching centers and paper solving gangs in the matter.
“Cheating in the exam is a matter of grave concern regarding the student’s future and a breach of sanctity and security of the examination,” the plea stated.
The Supreme Court Bench of Justices LN Rao and BR Gavai observed that if NEET is cancelled, lakhs of students will suffer.
“You know that the court is not going to interfere with an exam where 7 and a half lakh students have taken on the basis of five FIRs, how can the exams be cancelled?”
Mr. Salman Khurshid, appearing for the petitioners said that he was only pressing the prayer for seeking a report on the status of the investigation in the FIRs registered.
However the Court said that they don’t want to interfere as it will create a lot of confusion and will be detrimental to a lot of students.
“If we interfere, it will create a doubt. This will create a lot of confusion and will be detrimental to a large number of students. Sorry, we don’t want to interfere”. We don’t want to make any observations. If we observe anything, it might be taken out of context and will be understood in a different sense to create confusions.”
Justice Rao.
According to the reports, 13 NEET aspirants had filed a petition before the Supreme Court that sought the directions of the court to cancel the NEET-UG 2021 Exam held on September 12 over the paper leak reports.
According to the plea, the NTA was asked by the petitioners to submit an affidavit within a week, stating as to why the exam should not be cancelled.