The hearing of the NEET paper leak case is going on in the Supreme Court today. The Supreme Court, while reprimanding the National Testing Agency (NTA) in the question paper leak of NEET-UG exam, asked how such a big mistake could happen despite the existence of monitoring mechanism and monitoring committees. Comparing it with UPSC, the court said that such incidents have never happened in the country’s highest civil services examination and there is a need to learn a lesson from the UPSC system. Taking on record the affidavits filed by NTA and Dr Radhakrishnan, the court granted additional time to the Center to file its reply.
What did the Supreme Court ask the high level committee?
Justice P.S. Narasimha questioned Dr. Radhakrishnan about the extent of monitoring that took place following the committee’s recommendations. Noting that Dr Radhakrishnan had served on the High Level Committee before being appointed to the Monitoring Committee, Justice Narasimha asked how much monitoring of implementation was actually done. The court also asked Dr Radhakrishnan what factors were not considered by the committee due to which the paperwork was leaked despite already recommended security measures.
Know what the court said?
Lawyer: For this exam the focus can be on certain areas like newspaper printing etc. J. Narasimha: You can set up a small monitoring committee and collaborate with major universities to accept such suggestions. S.G. Mehta: Some suggestions can be taken from IIT. J. Narasimha: Full-time collaboration is ongoing with some universities. Methods and ideas keep changing. For example, in AI, we will coordinate with a university.
J. Narasimha: As per our instructions, the Director of NTA has filed an affidavit stating the implementation of the High Powered Committee process and the conduct of NET UG. Dr. Radhakrishnan, head of the steering committee, has also filed an affidavit mentioning the implementation of the recommendations. The Government of India will also have to file an affidavit. S.G. Mehta: The Ministry of Human Resource Development can represent the Central Government.
J. Narasimha: The said Ministry will file an affidavit explaining how and in what manner the process and conclusion of the examination will be conducted henceforth and also how institutional memory of continuity is established through appointment of expert personnel and institutional multiplicity. Our endeavor is to ensure that NTA has the physical and intellectual resources available to conduct the examination in 2024 or 2026. The affidavit will have to be filed before July 2. General Secretary: Honorable Prime Minister himself is monitoring. J. Narasimha: We should not let our youth down, it is very sad for them because they have invested a lot of time and emotions in this.
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