Supreme Court to closely monitor steps against NEET paper leaks

The Supreme Court said it would closely monitor the Centre's efforts to prevent NEET paper leaks, stressing that ad hoc measures were inadequate. The government assured the court it was implementing reforms beyond the Radhakrishnan Committee's recommendations to strengthen the examination system

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday told the Centre that it would closely monitor the steps taken to curb NEET examination paper leaks, while underlining that ad hocism has caused problems for years.

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe, which was hearing a batch of petitions, including one filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the government should indicate the steps taken to ensure transparency, the implementation of the recommendations of the Radhakrishnan Committee, and how the IIT model would be adopted.

---

Mehta said there had been some developments and that the government would file a detailed report, which might go beyond the recommendations of the Radhakrishnan Committee.

“Students’ futures can’t be jeopardised. We are going beyond the Radhakrishnan Committee. I assure you that the government is walking 10 extra miles. I can assure you everything is being supervised at the highest level,” Mehta submitted.

He added that a similar issue had arisen two years ago and that everything, from printing to transportation, had been explained to the court.

The bench said the government had deployed the Air Force to transport question papers for the NEET-UG retest, but all these measures were ad hoc.

“Ad hocism has troubled us for years,” Justice Narasimha said, while pointing out that the court would ensure the institutionalisation of the examination process.

Advocate Tanvi Dubey, appearing for FAIMA, sought a detailed blueprint of the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the computer-based test (CBT) model that will be implemented by the National Testing Agency for the NEET-UG examination from next year.