Apex Court directs IIT-Delhi to examine controversial Physics question by Tuesday

Questions if NEET paper leak was all over India

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The Supreme Court on Monday instructed the Director of IIT-Delhi to form a team of three experts to review a specific Physics question from the NEET-UG 2024 examination and submit a report on the correct answer by Tuesday noon.

This directive came at the end of a day-long hearing on a series of petitions, including those requesting a re-test of NEET-UG due to alleged question paper leaks and other irregularities.

A bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud asked petitioners demanding a retest to demonstrate, using data from the National Testing Agency (NTA), that there was a “systemic failure” in the examination’s administration and that the paper leak was “widespread” and not limited to Patna and Hazaribagh.

“How do you establish that the paper leak was all over India?” questioned the Chief Justice.

During the hearing, the bench, which also included Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, noted submissions from some aspirants claiming that a Physics question had two correct answers. They alleged that one group of examinees, who provided one of the correct answers, received four marks.

Additionally, it was argued that there were three groups of aspirants: one received minus five marks for the correct answer, another received four marks for a different correct answer, and a third group skipped the question out of either lack of knowledge or fear of negative marking. This discrepancy could significantly affect the merit list, the bench was told.

The bench included the controversial question in its order and stated: “As indicated..., four options were given in the question as framed, and students had to select one option as their answer.”