The
Supreme Court on Monday asked the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi
to set up a team of three experts to check a particular physics question asked
in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024
examination.
This
comes after the top court took note of the submissions from some aspirants that
a physics question on ‘atoms and its characteristics’ had two correct answers
and a set of examinees, who gave one particular answer out of the two correct
ones, were awarded four marks. The petitioners say that there is ambiguity in
the correctness of the two answers.
The
petitioners contended before a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud
that this would have a significant impact on the final merit list of successful
candidates.
The
expert team has been asked to submit a report on the correct answer by Tuesday
noon.
Referring
to the physics question, the bench said, “As indicated in the question as
framed, of which students had to select one option as their answer. In order to
resolve the issue as regards the correct answer, we are of the considered view
that an expert opinion should be sought from IIT Delhi.”
The
bench will resume hearing the pleas related to the medical entrance exam on
Tuesday.
The bench also asked the petitioners, who are
seeking cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024, to show there was a ‘systemic
failure’ in conducting the examination. It asked them to provide data to
establish that the question paper leak was ‘widespread’ and across the country.
The
top court also questioned the grant of grace marks and grace time to certain
students at examination centres in Haryana's Jhajjar.
The
bench asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to give it a note on grant of
grace marks and time to certain students in Jhajjar and other places where
‘wrong’ question papers were distributed.
The
apex court’s directions come amid the controversy surrounding the pan-Indian
medical entrance examination following allegations of malpractices, mass
question paper leaks, and cheating.
The
bench is currently hearing more than 40 pleas, including those seeking
cancellation, re-test and a court-monitored probe into the allegations of
large-scale malpractices and those filed by the NTA seeking transfer of cases
pending against it in various high courts over alleged irregularities in the
conduct of the examination to the Supreme Court.