‘Tell me why the convoy was looted…’ In the NEET case, the lawyer became a poet in front of the CJI

New Delhi. The Supreme Court is hearing the case of the leaked paper of NEET medical exam. During the hearing of the petitions related to the irregularities in the entrance exam, senior advocate Sanjay Hegde was presenting arguments on behalf of the people demanding a re-examination. During this, he quoted the couplet of famous poet Firaq Jalalpuri. Appearing before the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Hegde said, ‘This matter can be summarized in just one poem – Tu Idhar Udhar Ki Na Baat Kar, Ye Bata Ki Kafila Kyon Luta, Mujhe Rahjanon Se Gila Nahi Teri Rahbari Ka Sawal Hai.’

The senior lawyer made this comment when the NTA told the apex court that the exams for the students who passed should be re-examined. He also told the CJI bench that until the Supreme Court intervened on this issue, the NTA maintained its stance that ‘there was no leak’. Now why are they talking about re-examining the exam?

Hegde said, “NTA kept denying the leak and then later said okay, we can conduct the exam again for 1563 students…On June 22 itself, changes were made in the personnel and the CBI took over the investigation. An organised gang has also come to light, which has a long history of leaking such papers.” He further argued, “You cannot trust a competitive exam which has 61 toppers.”

The bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra directed the Director of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi to constitute a three-member expert committee and give its opinion on the correct answer of the MCQ question of NEET-UG 2024 for which the National Testing Agency had awarded marks for two options.

The court gave this direction after hearing some petitioners who had challenged the decision of the National Testing Authority (NTA) to accept two options as the correct answer to the question. The court has also requested to present the opinion of experts by 12 noon tomorrow. The hearing will continue tomorrow as well, in which the Central Government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) will present their arguments.

Tags: DY Chandrachud, National Eligibility Criteria