© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Hearing petitions highlighting the alleged irregularities in this year’s National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) exams, the Supreme Court on Tuesday told the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) that “even if there is 0.001% negligence on the part of anyone, it should be thoroughly dealt with”.
“All these matters ought not to be treated as adversarial litigation,” Justice S V Bhatti, who was part of a two-judge bench hearing the matters, said.
Advocate Kanu Agarwal who appeared for the Centre and the NTA told the bench presided by Justice Vikram Nath that the government had not seen it as adversarial at all.
Justice Bhatti referred to the consequences of a person who committed fraud going on to become a doctor. “Imagine a person who has played fraud on the system becomes a doctor! He is more deleterious to the society…,” he remarked.
Agarwal urged the court not to come to a conclusion before the Centre and the NTA had filed their response to the petitions.
The court also referred to the effort candidates put in to prepare for the exam. “We all know the labour children undergo especially for preparing for this exam,” said Justice Bhatti.
“Your stance ought not to change the moment you enter the court…Representing an agency, which is responsible for conducting the examination, you must stand firm. If there is a mistake, yes this is a mistake, this is the action we are going to take. At least that inspires confidence in your performance,” added Justice Bhatti.
Agreeing, Agarwal said, “Perhaps that is what weighed with the NTA and therefore the stance was taken on grace marks.”
On June 13, the Centre and the NTA had informed the Supreme Court that the grace marks awarded to 1,563 candidates in the NEET exams will be cancelled and a retest organised for those who want to sit for it afresh.
Justice Bhatti said, “If someone keeps just a table in front of him, find out the performance of most of the candidates, one can easily understand where it has gone wrong. How many cell phones were used? What are the places to which the … papers had come.”
Stressing the need for timely action, the judge added that there should be “timely action from you”. “Merely we react. During vacation we react very slowly,” he added.
The court, meanwhile, issued notices on the petitions and posted them for hearing on July 8 along with other similar petitions and asked the Centre and the NTA to file their response in two weeks.
The NEET results announced on June 4 have drawn flak as 67 students secured the first rank with a total score of 720/720, followed by candidates who scored 718 or 719, which many said was improbable. Questions have also been raised over the NTA awarding grace marks and allegations of paper leaks.
