NEET UG 2021: Supreme Court to hear NTA's plea against Bombay High Court order of re-examination

The Supreme Court will hear the plea of the National Testing Agency (NTA) against the recent Bombay High Court order that directed holding the National Eligibility cum Entrance Examination Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2021 again for two candidates. The NTA had earlier asked for an urgent hearing in the apex court against the Bombay High Court’s order, claiming that the results of the NEET UG 2021 were halted due to the Bombay High Court order. The SC bench, comprising Justices Hima Kohli and Surya Kant and Chief Justice NV Ramana, had replied “We will see”. The plea by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing the NTA in the matter, states that the delay in declaring the results of the NEET UG 2021 would lead to further delay in admission to “undergraduate medical courses ie MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BSMS, BUMS and BHMS Courses”. The plea also said that due to the Bombay High Court ruling, the NEET results have not been declared, even though they are ready. According to NDTV, the NEET UG 2021 results can be expected soon after the Supreme Court takes a decision on the NTA’s petition against the Bombay High Court’s order. On 20 October, the Bombay High Court had directed the NTA to hold a NEET UG re-exam for two candidates whose OMR sheets and questions papers got mixed at an exam centre in Maharashtra. According to news reports, the two aspirants, Vaishanavi Bhopali and Abhishek Shivaji, claimed that they had been given answer sheets and question papers with different serial numbers in the NEET UG 2021. The Bombay High Court, while mentioning that the order should not be seen as a precedent, directed the NTA to hold a re-exam of the two candidates, with a prior notice of 48 hours being given to them about the exam centre and date of the test. The court also directed the NTA to declare the results of the two candidates, along with the main results of NEET UG 2021. The NEET-UG 2021 was held on 12 September, with over 16 lakh candidates appearing for the test.