NEET Hearing: Telegram, e-rickshaw, banks, petitioners list possibilities of paper leak, Read here
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NEET Hearing: The Supreme Court is regularly hearing on the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test undergraduate (NEET UG 2024) irregularities. The petitioners have submitted reports and CBI findings on the NEET paper leak and argued that the question paper was shared before the exam date. The NTA, however, claimed that there was “no paper leak”.
Senior Advocate Hooda said: “The entire country was given a paper from SBI, but in Hardayal school, papers were given from Canara Bank. The principal says that the instruction was to let the students do Canara bank paper. They gave grace marks to everyone in the school. Because of that extra mark, 6 people got 720/720.” Of this, two students from the same centre got 718.
“They have not come clean on that. First, they said there was a delay in distribution. When they were caught, they said we were having a re-exam and didn't go into the issue of grace marks. The question of who they gave grace marks to 15,063 odd people has not been examined by this court,” he argued.
NEET-UG 2024 was taken by 23.33 lakh students on May 5 across 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 cities overseas. Conducted by the NTA, NEET-UG is the entrance test for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in government and private institutions nationwide.
Senior Advocate Hooda said: “The entire country was given a paper from SBI, but in Hardayal school, papers were given from Canara Bank. The principal says that the instruction was to let the students do Canara bank paper. They gave grace marks to everyone in the school. Because of that extra mark, 6 people got 720/720.” Of this, two students from the same centre got 718.
“They have not come clean on that. First, they said there was a delay in distribution. When they were caught, they said we were having a re-exam and didn't go into the issue of grace marks. The question of who they gave grace marks to 15,063 odd people has not been examined by this court,” he argued.
NEET-UG 2024 was taken by 23.33 lakh students on May 5 across 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 cities overseas. Conducted by the NTA, NEET-UG is the entrance test for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in government and private institutions nationwide.
NEET Hearing: Possibilities of paper leak
The CJI said: “There are two possibilities. One the paper gets leaked before the custody of banks. That means it happened before May 3. Second, the leak happened when the papers left the banks and were bound for the center. An alternative hypothesis is that a leak happened in the custody of banks is possible according to you, which means May 3. Between May 3 and May 5 is a long interval.”
Adding to this, Hooda said that the papers were under the custody of private companies, courier companies, and e-rickshaws for a longer period. “The NEET question papers were sent to the cities between April 24 to 28 from the printing press. They have transported the papers in an e-rickshaw without any guard,” he said. Countering him, the SG said that those were not question papers but OMR sheets.
Answering CJI's question on when the breach took place, the SG said: "It was in a particular center, between 8.02 AM to 9.23 AM a person goes in, photographs the paper, and comes out. There were 7 solvers and they divided 25 questions each. The questions were jumbled and so students were made to memorize.
“Students got only 2 hours to memorize the questions. That is why out of 18 students, only one student is possibly getting admission, but he will face debarment,” SG argued.
“Does somebody pay Rs 75,000 for 45 minutes? The hypothesis that the entire paper was solved in 45 minutes and given to students is too far-fetched," CJI commented.
The CJI said: “There are two possibilities. One the paper gets leaked before the custody of banks. That means it happened before May 3. Second, the leak happened when the papers left the banks and were bound for the center. An alternative hypothesis is that a leak happened in the custody of banks is possible according to you, which means May 3. Between May 3 and May 5 is a long interval.”
Adding to this, Hooda said that the papers were under the custody of private companies, courier companies, and e-rickshaws for a longer period. “The NEET question papers were sent to the cities between April 24 to 28 from the printing press. They have transported the papers in an e-rickshaw without any guard,” he said. Countering him, the SG said that those were not question papers but OMR sheets.
Answering CJI's question on when the breach took place, the SG said: "It was in a particular center, between 8.02 AM to 9.23 AM a person goes in, photographs the paper, and comes out. There were 7 solvers and they divided 25 questions each. The questions were jumbled and so students were made to memorize.
“Students got only 2 hours to memorize the questions. That is why out of 18 students, only one student is possibly getting admission, but he will face debarment,” SG argued.
“Does somebody pay Rs 75,000 for 45 minutes? The hypothesis that the entire paper was solved in 45 minutes and given to students is too far-fetched," CJI commented.
