Lesson not learnt: SC notice to Centre, NTA

THe sublime margaret court on mon sought-after(a) responses from the subject Testing Agency (NTA) and the Centre on the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, expressing anguish that lessons have not been learnt from the past when assurances were given by Centre to plug loopholes following a similar controversy in 2024.“It is so sad they have not learnt the lesson,” remarked a bench of justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe while hearing two petitions filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) and United Doctors Front (UDF).The petitions favoured replacing NTA with a statutory body that is accountable. They argue that the leak, which led to the cancellation of the test and its rescheduling for next month, exposed gaps in the process followed by NTA in securing the integrity of the examination taken by more than 2.27 million medical aspirants.“We are not on the examination as such. In 2024, we gave a judgment, directed constitution of a committee, the recommendations of the committee were accepted and pursuant to it, the Centre constituted a monitoring committee,” the bench told advocates Tanvi Dubey and Charu Mathur, appearing for FAIMA and UDF.The petitions referred to this August 2024 judgment following the NEET-UG 2024 controversy. In June that year, the Ministry of Education constituted a seven-member High-Level Committee of Experts (HLCE), headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan, to examine the examination process and recommend measures to plug vulnerabilities.The committee submitted its report to the Centre in October 2024 recommending far-reaching reforms in the conduct of NEET and further strengthening of NTA, inter-state linkages, and seamless coordination with test indenting agencies and examination partners.A SOP was framed to prevent breaches in conducting the pen and paper test and computer-based test. Based on its recommendations, the Centre formed a High Powered Steering Committee on November 14, 2024 and enacted the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 to act as a deterrence to use of unfair means in public examinations.In its order on Monday, the bench said, “We direct the NTA to file an affidavit indicating the position as regards the monitoring committee constituted on November 14, 2024.” Further, the bench directed Radhakrishnan to file a separate affidavit on the steps taken to ensure implementation of the suggestions by the expert committee.The court granted three days for the responses to be filed and posted the matter for further hearing on May 29. It further requested assistance of solicitor general Tushar Mehta and asked the petitioners to serve a copy to him.The petitions by FAIMA and UDF came in the wake of the May 12 order of NTA to cancel the NEET-UG 2026 examination over allegations of paper leak. The case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for nabbing the accused persons. The petition also named CBI as a party to know the status of investigation in the case and demanded the re-test to be done under court’s monitoring and supervision.The FAIMA plea also demanded the NTA to be replaced with a body which is technologically well-equipped and autonomous in ensuring integrity of NEET.At the same time, the petition by UDF sought dissolution of NTA claiming that the body, which is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 cannot be entrusted with the task of conducting NEET examination as the body lacks accountability and is not governed under any statute. It proposed creation of such a statutory examination conducting body keeping in mind the interest of over 2 million students who take the examination every year. The UDF also cited the Radhakrishnan committee’s recommendations on having computer-based test and said that this recommendation has not been implemented till date.The two petitions have suggested further reforms in the examination process which includes a mandatory step for “digital locking” of question papers and to avoid the physical handling and transportation of question papers. It also proposed in the long run to have an independent body - National Examination Integrity Commission (NEIC) having experts in the field to ensure the examination process is fool-proof.The NEET-UG 2026 was held on May 3 and is now rescheduled for June 21.