The Supreme Court has expressed disappointment over the National Testing Agency's (NTA) failure to learn from past mistakes, particularly the 2024 NEET paper leak. The court has directed the Centre, NTA, and CBI to respond to pleas seeking the replacement of the testing agency with a robust, autonomous body to conduct the medical entrance exam.
A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe has asked the NTA to file an affidavit by Thursday on compliance with the directions issued by the court in 2024. The court has also directed the Centre-appointed committee to overhaul the functioning of the NTA and detail the steps taken to comply with its directions.
The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) has sought the top court's direction to restructure or replace NTA with a robust, autonomous system to conduct NEET-UG, citing a 'direct assault' on the fundamental rights of over 22.7 lakh students through recurring paper leaks.
The undergraduate-level National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) held on May 3 by the NTA for admissions to medical education programmes was cancelled on May 12 amid allegations of paper leak, which are now being probed by the CBI.
