“Avoid Flip Flops”: Supreme Court Raps Exam Body, Says Must Fix Loopholes

The Supreme Court has directed the National Testing Agency – the under-fire central body responsible for the conduct of the NEET-UG test – to “rectify deficiencies in the exam system”, including using technology to identify faults in its cybersecurity profile to prevent paper leaks.

The court also told the NTA to avoid “flip-flops” in the context of the NEET exam, which was held on May 5 but ran into trouble a month later, when results were declared. Such “flip-flops” – in a national test for aspiring medical professionals – do not serve students’ interests, the court said.

“We have highlighted all deficiencies in the structural processes of the NTA… this we cannot afford for the betterment of the students,” the court said Friday morning.

The bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud has given the central government’s committee – a seven-member panel led by ex-ISRO chief Dr K Radhakrishnan and including former AIIMS (Delhi) Director Dr Randeep Guleria – time till September 30 to present its report. The committee has been tasked with analysing the entire examination process and suggest changes to make it more efficient.

“Report of committee to be submitted by September 30 to the government. Ministry of Education shall report compliance of committee and decision to implement (measures) in two weeks.”

The court offered eight points to guide the committee, including laying out a standard operating procedure, or protocol, for conduct of qualifying exams, a review of process of allotting exam centres and enhanced identity checks of candidates, and CCTV monitoring of exam centres.

Another point was to ensure “secure logistics providers for ensuring non-tampering of question papers”; this is crucial given the 2024 NEET-UG exam papers may have been leaked while they were being transported – in locked boxes – from where they were printed to the exam centres.

On the larger question of leaked exam papers, the court said it was satisfied “there was no systemic breach… the leak was limited to Patna (in Bihar) and Hazaribagh (in Jharkhand)”.

The Chief Justice also observed there is a need to have counselling programmes to ensure mental welfare of students, as well as training for staff and management to handle such concerns.