New Delhi, January 2
The Center on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it will implement all the corrective measures suggested by its seven-member expert panel on examination reforms after reviewing the functioning of the National Testing Agency in conducting NEET-UG last year.
The apex court had on August 2 last year refused to cancel the controversial NEET-UG 2024, saying there was no material on record at the moment to indicate systemic leakage or malpractice compromising the integrity of the examination.
A seven-member expert panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan to review the functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and recommend examination reforms to make NEET-UG transparent and malpractice-free. The period was also extended.
On Thursday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Center and told a bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra that the Centre-appointed committee has submitted its report and the government will implement all the recommendations.
“We are going to implement all the recommendations and it (the case) can be listed after six months,” the law officer said.
Adjourning the matter for three months, the bench asked to list this special leave petition for the month of April. The entire report in this regard has not been placed on record as it also contains some details about issues like printing of questions etc.
It may be mentioned that on October 21 last year, the apex court had extended the time given to the seven-member expert panel appointed by the Center to file its report on the examination reforms.
Expanding the purview of the expert panel, the apex court had picked up on several flaws in the NTA, such as security breaches at an exam center in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, in which the back door of the strongroom was opened and unauthorized people were allowed access to question papers, e – Transportation of question papers by rickshaws and distribution of wrong sets of question papers among the candidates etc. -News-Patiala
