A petition has been filed by a group of medical students in the Supreme Court seeking a review of its earlier order dated August 2, in which it had rejected pleas for holding NEET-UG 2024 afresh. The court had noted that "there was no systemic breach" warranting the cancellation of the exam.
In this petition, the students have claimed that there have been significant developments since the CJI DY Chandrachud ruled that there will be no retest for NEET UG 2024.
“The new-found material evidence ostensibly establishes a ‘Systemic breach/malpractice’ prevalent across states, hence challenging the grounds on which the order dated 02.08.2024, was primarily based, such that it is not possible to separate the beneficiaries of leak/malpractice from the honest students. It calls for judicial application of mind on a whole new set of evidence which cannot go unnoticed in this matter of immense public interest,” the review petition stated.
What is a review petition?
A review petition is typically filed by an aggrieved party requesting the court to reconsider its earlier order. Generally, review petitions are heard in a chamber hearing without the presence of parties, lawyers, or litigants. The same judges who issued the original order review the case and pass a decision, usually within 15-30 minutes.
“A ‘City-Centre wise data analysis’ (herein annexed as ANNEXURE P-), which illustrates that out of a total of 4738 examination centres, 60 odd centres are such where the percentage of successful examinees was about 80%, with four of these 60 centres having an improbable success ratio of above 85%. Additionally, out of these 60 centres, 39 are from just one city—Sikar, which should ideally have been spread across the country and, most importantly, should have been from metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, etc., as seen in all national level examinations. In stark contrast, the average percentage of successful candidates at 2417 other centres was below 50%,” the review petition adds.
Among the allegations is the recovery of 16 mobile phones from a pond in Dhanbad, which were previously reported lost after a paper leak was disclosed. The petition also raises concerns about negligence in awarding grace marks, issues with OMR sheets, and the prediction of paper leaks.
