The Supreme Court will hear on Thursday the petitions related to the controversial National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024. The exam was held on May 5. According to the cause list uploaded on the Supreme Court website for July 18, a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra will hear more than 40 petitions.

The court had postponed the hearing till July 18

On July 11, the Supreme Court had deferred the hearing on the petitions related to NEET-UG 2024 till July 18. In these petitions, a request has been made to investigate the alleged irregularities and malpractices in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024, cancel the exam and direct to conduct a fresh examination.

The bench had said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has submitted a status report on the progress made in the investigation of alleged irregularities in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024.

IIT Madras conducted the data analysis of the results

In an additional affidavit filed in the apex court last week, the central government had said that the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras had conducted a data analysis of the NEET-UG 2024 results, which neither indicated that there was “large-scale malpractice” in the exam nor did it reveal that any group of local candidates benefited and scored unexpected marks.

The government’s claim is important in view of the Supreme Court’s observation on July 8, in which it had said that if large-scale irregularities are found in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024 on May 5, it may order a fresh examination.

More than 23.33 lakh students had appeared for the exam

The Centre’s new affidavit said that the process of ‘counselling’ for undergraduate seats for 2024-25 will begin from the third week of July and will be completed in four phases. NTA, which conducts NEET-UG 2024, also filed an additional affidavit in the apex court. The agency had said that it has done an analysis of the distribution of marks in NEET-UG 2024 at the national, state, city and centre level.

NTA said in its affidavit, “This analysis shows that the distribution of marks is absolutely normal and there does not appear to be any external factor which appears to affect the distribution of marks.” It also informed in the affidavit about the secret printing of question papers, the arrangements established for its transportation and distribution.

On May 5, more than 23.33 lakh students had taken the NEET-UG exam at 4,750 centres in 571 cities. These cities also included 14 foreign cities.