SC puts govt. on deadline to overhaul NEET-UG
- The Supreme Court pronounced a scathing judgment calling out the “flip-flops” of the National Testing Agency (NTA) in NEET exam and put the government on a deadline to completely restructure the exam process.
Highlights:
- The three-judge Bench directed the Centre, acting through its high-powered committee to recommend and implement top-to-bottom overhauling of the exam process
- These include rectifying “serious security lapses”, introducing data protection measures, periodic audits, surprise inspections of exam centres, grievance redressal mechanisms for students and foolproof logistics.
- The court pointed to how the NTA initially gave 1,563 students grace marks after realising that they were allotted the wrong question paper, and then later decided to withdraw their scores and conduct a re-test.
- Even while refusing to scrap NEET-UG 2024 on the ground that there was no “systemic breach”, a series of directions issued by the apex court to the government’s committee in the judgment highlight and spell out every single concern raised by petitioners about the security of the exam process in over 40 separate petitions.
- The court expanded the ambit of the Radhakrishnan committee to include improvements to the exam security and administration by introducing rigorous checks and balances at every stage from the setting of the question papers to the declaration of the final results.
- The judgment ordered the framing of a Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) detailing specific timelines to be set for various aspects.
- It called for a process to review allotment of exam centres after petitions complained that there were instances of students inexplicably travelling from Godhra in Gujarat to Belgaum in Karnataka.
- Addressing petitioners’ complaints of impersonation in NEET-UG 2024, the court called for a stricter procedure employing enhanced identity checks and technological advancements while complying with the laws of privacy.
- The court highlighted the need for “comprehensive CCTV surveillance of exam centres, including real-time monitoring and recording of their activities.
Prelims Takeaway
- NTA