THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, May 25: The Supreme Court on Monday sharply criticised the National Testing Agency (NTA) over recurring controversies surrounding the NEET examination, observing that the agency appeared not to have “learnt lessons” from the earlier paper leak episode.
A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe sought responses from the Centre, the NTA and the CBI on petitions demanding the replacement of the testing body with an autonomous and more robust mechanism for conducting the medical entrance examination.
The court directed the NTA to file an affidavit by Thursday detailing compliance with recommendations made by a court-appointed panel after the 2024 NEET controversy.
“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 observed.
The apex court also issued notice on a plea filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) through advocate Tanvi Dubey and ordered that all similar petitions be tagged together for hearing.
Court Seeks Status of NTA Reforms
The Supreme Court further directed the Centre-appointed committee headed by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan to place on record the steps taken to overhaul the functioning of the NTA.
FAIMA, in its petition, sought restructuring or replacement of the NTA, alleging that repeated paper leaks amounted to a “direct assault” on the fundamental rights of over 22.7 lakh students appearing for NEET-UG.
The association also demanded the constitution of a high-powered monitoring committee to supervise the proposed re-examination until a new testing body is established. It suggested that the panel be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and include cybersecurity and forensic experts to prevent future leaks.
NEET-UG Cancelled After Leak Allegations
The NEET-UG examination, conducted by the NTA on May 3 for admission to undergraduate medical courses, was cancelled on May 12 following allegations of a paper leak. The case is currently being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).