During the hearing on the NEET UG paper leak case in the Supreme Court on Tuesday (July 23, 2024), senior advocate Sanjay Hegde argued on behalf of the petitioners by reciting a poem. He read a poem by Firaq Jalalpuri in front of a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra.
The advocates appeared on behalf of the petitioner students in the court and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was arguing on behalf of the National Testing Agency (NTA). Then during the debate in the court, advocate Sanjay Hegde took the name of SG and said, ‘Because Mr. Mehta is here and he likes poetry… This case can be summarized in just one poem – Don’t talk about this and that, tell me why the caravan was looted, I have no complaint against the robbers, it is a question of your leadership…’
Advocate Hegde said that NTA kept denying the paper leak and later said that 1563 students would be re-examined. He said that changes were made in the personnel on June 22 itself and the CBI took over the investigation. Sanjay Hegde said that an organized gang has also come to light, which has a long history of paper leaks. He argued that you cannot trust a competitive exam which has 61 toppers."text-align: justify;">NEET exam will not be held again
The students had demanded in the court to cancel the NEET exam and conduct it again, which was rejected by the Supreme Court. The court said that there is no such material on record which proves that the paper was leaked or there was any irregularity in the exam. This decision has brought great relief to the central government and NTA because the government has faced strong criticism and opposition from the streets to the Parliament over the allegations of irregularity in the exam.
A bench of CJI D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra heard arguments of Narendra Hooda, Sanjay Hegde and Mathews Nedumpara Senior Advocates appearing for the Centre and NTA and various petitioners over four days.
The bench said in its order, ‘The final findings of the court in such cases should be recorded at the present stage as there is an urgent need to provide certainty and finality to this dispute, which affects the career of more than 20 lakh students.’ The court said that ordering a re-examination would have serious consequences for more than 24 lakh students who appeared in the previous examination.
The court rejected the petitioners’ argument that the papers were leaked in a systematic manner. The court said that the fact that the question paper leak took place in Hazaribagh and Patna is not a matter of dispute. Citing the status report of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the bench said that 155 students from the exam centers in Hazaribagh and Patna appear to be beneficiaries of the fraud.
The bench said that since the tainted students can be identified from other students, there is no merit in the argument of the petitioners that re-examination is the only option. The court also upheld the decision of NTA to conduct re-examination for 1,563 students due to various reasons.
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