A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra will hear petitions challenging alleged malpractices and irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on July 8. .

The cause list of July 8 published on the Supreme Court website shows that the cases are listed before a bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud.

It is noteworthy that on May 17, a bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud issued notice on the petition alleging NEET-UG exam paper leak and posted the matter for hearing on July 8 (reopening day after summer vacations). Had decided. That day the bench also rejected the prayer to stay the declaration of results.

After the declaration of NEET-UG results on June 4, several petitions were filed raising concerns over the fairness of the process adopted by the NTA, the issue of granting grace marks to 1563 candidates and the need for a CBI inquiry into the conduct of the examination. Also, a request was made to organize NEET-UG afresh.

What is the NEET-UG issue?

Several petitions were filed before the Supreme Court alleging that the nationwide examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5 was rigged as several cases of paper leaks were reported. Additional petitions also filed against 'arbitrary' award of grace marks to 1536 candidates on the grounds of alleged 'loss of time' to allow 'back-door entry' to some persons after declaration of NEET-UG results Were done.

It is noteworthy that during the hearing of these cases by the vacation bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta, the association informed the court that a decision was taken to cancel the grace marks of 1563 candidates.

On June 21, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti refused to stay the counselling/seat allotment process of NEET-UG starting from July 6. The bench orally said that any medical admission would be subject to the final outcome of the pending petitions.

On June 22, the Education Ministry constituted a high-level committee of experts to make recommendations on 'improving the system of examination process, improving data security protocols and the structure and functioning of NTA'. The expert committee will be headed by former ISRO Chairman Dr. K. Radhakrishnan.