The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Supreme Court said on July 8 that there was no doubt that the sanctity of the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test had been compromised by the leak of the question paper and noted that the extent of it had to be ascertained.
Several students and tutorial agencies had moved court against the paper leak of an exam which had been besieged by serious claims of mismanagement and wrongdoing.
A bench of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, according to Bar and Bench, that while it is fact that the sanctity of the exam has been compromised, the nature of the leak is something worth determining in order to arrive at a decision on a retest.
“But before we order a retest, we must be conscious of extent of leak as we are dealing with 23 lakh students. This concerns cost to be incurred like travelling, dislodging academic schedule etc. So what is the nature of leak, how was the leak, the time, how was the leak disseminated, what are the actions which centre and NTA has done to identify the beneficiary students of the wrongdoing,” the CJI said.
Indian Express has reported the CJI as having noted that if the question paper leak was taking place through Telegram, WhatsApp and electronic means, then would have spread “like wildfire”.
The next hearing will take place on July 11.
The court said, according to Bar and Bench, that it will decide on a retest based on three parameters, whether the alleged breach took place at the systemic level, whether the breach is of a nature which affects integrity of the entire exam process; and whether it is possible to segregate the beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students.
The court asked the NTA to notify it of when the leak first took place, how the information was disseminated, the duration between occurrence of leak and the exam on May 5, and the steps it took to identify who benefitted from it.
The apex court also sought a status report from the Central Bureau of Investigation on its probe into the case.
The court asked for these details to be submitted by 5 pm on July 10.
“The court is concerned about ensuring the sanctity of the NEET test, so that such instances are not repeated. It would be necessary for the government to consider setting up a multi-disciplinary team of renowned experts. If a committee has already been setup, full details should be made available to the Court. The Court may then consider whether the committee should be allowed to proceed or the composition should be modified”, The Hindu quoted the CJI as having said in his order.