Supreme Court’s judges to visit new NTA office to check infrastructure, manpower

Justice Narasimha also sought to impress upon Mehta the importance of strengthening the NTA’s system institutionally to prevent paper leaks. He underlined the need for NTA to have a permanent set up and permanent staff. “Each of these aspects – permanency of the place, permanency of at least half of the staff, not everyone should be on deputation”, said Justuce Narasimha.

Mehta added to the list – “and whether you need a statutory backing to the existence of the committee”?

The NTA is under the shadow of the NEET-UG paper leak that sparked nationwide protests earlier this year, leading to the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Union Education Minister.

The top court is hearing petitions seeking replacement or restructuring of the NTA, which holds all-India competitive exams such as JEE (Main), CUET (UG), CUET (PG), UGC-NET and CSIR-NET and NEET (UG). Among the petitioners are the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), United Doctors Front and RJD MP Sudhakar Singh. The petitions also seek “digital locking” of question papers, a transition to computer-based test model and publication of centre-wise results to detect anomalies.

Asked about the progress of the work by the High-Powered Task Force set up by the Centre under Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to recommend structural changes needed in the conduct of the NEET exams, Mehta told the court that it had “conducted extensive consultations”, including with former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan, who is heading an earlier High-Level Committee of Experts (HLCE).

He said: “It is our expectation that by the end of this month, the committee may come out with the report.”

“What is the progress, what are the suggestions? We want somebody from the committee to tell us,” said Justice Narasimha. Mehta assured that he will get the instructions.

“Ask the joint secretary (assisting the committee) to file an affidavit indicating the progress of the matter, what are the suggestions?” the judge said, adding that “most important…is institutionalisation”.

“You know what we are little concerned about? We had the Radhakrishnan Committee. So what we have today is only a committee report. Full stop,” said Justice Narasimha.

Mehta said, “It must progress from there.”

Justice Narasimha said, “Translation of the recommendations and their implementation is the most important part.”

Mehta said, “Even this Nilekani committee should be a starting point. And I believe they would also give a roadmap as to how, what is to be done, at what time, at what stage. And the government is committed… Your Lordships may monitor the implementation.”

“We will see the implementation,” said Justice Narasimha.

The SG sought to know if the affidavit can be filed by the end of September.

Justice Narasimha said: “Please file it as quickly as possible on the progress made.”

For the petitioners, Advocate Tanvi Dubey pointed out that the Radhakrishnan Committee had specifically referred to the need to have domain experts and a governing body.

Justice Narasimha said taking advice from domain experts is an integral part and the two committees are taking care of it. “Once the affidavit is placed on record, we will know how it’s progressing. We will accordingly deal with it,” he said.

Dubey said while there are plans to transform the NEET-UG exam from pen-paper to computer-based, there should also be time-bound direction as the next exams are only a few months away.

Mehta said, “The government and the Nilekani Committee are also cognisant that we are nearing the next exam. So something will have to be done. That’s what we are given to understand.” He added that all suggestions given by all petitioners were placed before the Nilekani Committee.

The bench said that NTA should put up the affidavit on its website so that all stakeholders can have a look.

In its order, the court referred to an affidavit filed before it and said: “It is stated that NTA is transitioning from exam-specific units to functional vertical structure to build specialised domain-specific capabilities across core operational areas. NTA leadership has been upgraded with Secretary-level officer as Director General, supported by cadre-level officers from different services along with open market recruitment of domain specialists in security, HR, and R&D.”

“It is further stated that senior leadership of the NTA accordingly draws officers from IAS, IPS, Indian Statistical Services etc bringing together specialists expertise across multiple domains. Confidential offices have been relocated to dedicated 55,520 sq government facility Minto Road, New Delhi. It is also stated that it is secured by 39 CISF personnel, X-ray screening etc. The affidavit indicates various other progress. We direct NTA to place the affidavit on its web portal so that progress can be looked into by other stakeholders. We direct the Joint Secretary to the High Powered Task Force to file affidavit indicating the progress within 2 weeks,” the court said.