56 students from Gujarat move SC against re-NEET-UG exam

NEW DELHI: 56 Gujarat-based students on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking a number of directions, including that of action against those students who allegedly indulged in malpractices, and the NEET-UG 2024 exam should not be cancelled.

According to the Supreme Court staff and registry, the joint plea had been filed and it would most likely to come up for hearing on July 8, as the apex court had already listed and scheduled to hear around 60 petitions on that day on the same issue.

The lead petitioner Siddhartha Komla Singla, who appeared in the NEET-UG 2024 exam held on May 5 this year has filed the plea along with other students from Gujarat.

The petitions sought to direct the respondents – National Testing Agency (NTA) and other authorities – to identify and punish the examinees indulged in the adoption of unfair means during the examination. They also sought that equal action should also be taken by identifying the centres where any compromise to the established guidelines for NEET-UG 2024 examinations has been done.

“The apex court may further direct the respondents not to re-conduct NEET-UG 2024 by cancelling it, as that would not only be unreasonable and harsh for the honest and hardworking students but also would lead to the infringement of the Right to Education (RTE) and therefore violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, 1950,” the pleas said.

Highlighting that the petitioner students – in the age group of 17 to 19 – had given their 100% dedicatedly to achieve their dream of becoming a doctor after consistent hard work of more than three to four years, they have passed the NEET-UG 2024 exam. So the exam should not be cancelled, it said.

They also elaborated to the top court, in their petitions, that they were celebrating the result of their hard work on being declared as successful and falling amongst the high rankers of the NEET-UG 2024 examinations.

After this, the news surfaced regarding the multiple petitions filed before the apex court challenging the irregularities in conducting exam by the NTA, awarding grace marks for loss of time, paper leak and praying for CBI inquiry, re-NEET to be conducted, etc.

The petitioners said that if the re-test of NEET-UG 2024 occurs, they were afraid that they will have to face a lot of hardship and the re-NEET would fail to pass the test of reasonableness. Therefore conducting re-NEET would be unreasonable for the petitioners who have attained success due to their consistent hard work and sincerity.

“Therefore, re-NEET on the ground of being unreasonable would be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, 1950 and therefore in order to protect their result and their fundamental right, the petitioners are compelled to file their grievances through this petition,” the petition said.