New Delhi

The Supreme Court of India on Monday expressed concern over recurring irregularities in the NEET examination process, observing that the National Testing Agency appeared not to have learnt lessons from the earlier paper leak controversy.

A bench comprising Justices P. S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe issued notices to the Centre, the NTA and the Central Bureau of Investigation on petitions seeking replacement of the testing agency with an autonomous and more robust mechanism for conducting the NEET examination.

“It’s sad that they have not learnt their lessons. The matter travelled to this court earlier also,” the bench remarked, referring to the previous controversy surrounding the medical entrance examination.

The court noted that a monitoring committee had earlier made recommendations for reforms, which were accepted, and directed the NTA to file an affidavit by Thursday detailing steps taken to comply with those recommendations.

The bench also instructed that copies of the petitions be served to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and ordered that all similar pleas be tagged together for hearing.

In addition, the court directed the Centre-appointed committee led by former Indian Space Research Organisation chief K. Radhakrishnan to provide details on measures taken to implement reforms suggested for overhauling the NTA’s functioning.

The plea, filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association through advocate Tanvi Dubey, sought restructuring or replacement of the NTA, alleging that repeated paper leaks had adversely affected the rights of over 22.7 lakh students.

The petition also requested the constitution of a high-powered monitoring committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, alongside cybersecurity and forensic experts, to supervise any future re-examination process and prevent further leaks.

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The undergraduate-level NEET examination, conducted on May 3 for admission to medical courses, was cancelled on May 12 following allegations of a paper leak. The मामलेis currently under investigation by the CBI.