Supreme Court to closely monitor Centre's NEET anti-leak measures

The Supreme Court on Friday told the Centre that it would closely monitor the steps being taken to curb paper leaks in the NEET examination, stressing that students’ futures cannot be put at risk. The court said it wanted to see concrete measures on transparency, implementation of the Radhakrishnan Committee’s recommendations, and the proposed use of the IIT model.

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe, hearing a batch of petitions including one filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), said the problem could not be addressed through temporary arrangements. Justice Narasimha said, “Ad hocism has troubled us for years,” as the bench underlined the need to institutionalise the examination



process.

Mehta also said that a similar issue had come up two years ago and that the entire process, from printing to transportation of question papers, had then been explained to the court. The bench noted that the government had even used the Air Force to transport question papers for the NEET-UG retest, but observed that such steps were still ad hoc in nature.

Appearing for FAIMA, advocate Tanvi Dubey sought a detailed blueprint of the standard operating procedure for the computer-based test model that the National Testing Agency plans to introduce for the NEET-UG examination from next year. The hearing focused on the need for a transparent and lasting system to prevent leaks and protect the integrity of the exam.