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2024 (8) TMI 1632
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.... Adv., Mr. Gyan Prakash, Adv., Ms. Divya Kumari Singh, Adv., Mr. Vedant Pardhan, Adv., Mr. Mohd Sharyab Ali, Adv. Mr. Sanjay R. Hegde, Sr. Adv., Mr. Shwetank Sailakwal, AOR, Mr. Tanmaya Agarwal, Adv., Mrs. Aditi Agarwal, Adv., Mr. Deepak Panjwani, Adv., Mr. Anas Tanwir, Adv., Mr. Ebad Ur Rahman, Adv., Mr. Mayank Suryan, Adv., Mr. Zaid Raza, Adv., Mr. Raghav Gupta, Adv., Mr. Shahrukh Ali, Adv., Mr. Ankit Tiwari, Adv., Mr. Tanay Hegde, Adv., Ms. Riya Sharma, Adv., Mr. Prateek Chandra, Adv., Mr. Durgesh Shukla, Adv., Mr Mohammad Asif Abbas, Adv., Mr. Aayushman Jauhari, Adv., Ms. Aparna Jauhari, Adv., Mr. Aakarsh Mishra, Adv., Petitioner-in-person, Mr. Mathews J. Nedumpara, Adv., Ms. Usha Nandini V., AOR, Ms. Maria Nedumpara, Adv., Ms. Hemali Kurne, Adv., Ms. Rohini Amin, Adv., Mr. Shameem Fayiz, Adv., Mr. Saurav Gupta, AOR, Mr. Feroz Shaikh, Adv., Mr. Aamir Naseem, Adv., Mr. Inam Ahmad Khan, Adv., Mr. Danish Zubair Khan, AOR, Mr. Sudhir Naagar, AOR, Mr. Dhiraj Kumar Singh, Adv., Dr. Arstu Upadhyay, Adv., Mr. Baldev Singh Pathania, Adv., Mr. Arun Kumar Nagar, Adv., Mr. Piyush Aggarwal, Adv., Ms. Savita, Adv., Mr. Anshul Dabas, Adv., Mr. Tushar Aggarwal, Adv., Ms. Isha Singh, AOR, Mr. S....
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....v., Ms. Tusharika Sharma, Adv., Mr. Aslam Ahmed Jamal, AOR, Mr. Rohit Jain, Adv., Ms. Shabiesta Nabi, Adv., Ms. Kheyali Singh, Adv., Mr. Abhishek Dwivedi, Adv., Mr. Arun Kumar Arunachal, Adv., Mr. Tasleem Arif, Adv., Mr. Satyapal Singh, Adv., Mr. Harilal S, Adv., Mr. Rahat Khan Afridi, Adv., Ms. Latika Rungta Bajaj, Adv., Mr., Zeeshan Haider, Adv., Ms. Abiha Zaidi, AOR, Mr. Sanjay Hegde, Sr. Adv., Ms. Mithu Jain, AOR, Mr. Shashwat Jaiswal, Adv., Mr. Ankit, Adv. For the Respondent : Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, Mr. K Parmeshwar, Adv., Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv., Mr. Mayank Pandey, Adv., Mr. Udai Khanna, Adv., Mr. Rajat Nair, Adv., Mr. Madhav Sinhal, Adv., Mr. Amrish Kumar, AOR, Mr. Naresh Kaushik, Sr. Adv., Mr. Vardhman Kaushik, AOR, Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv., Mr. Nishant Gautam, Adv., Mr. Dhruv Joshi, Adv., Mr. Mayank Sharma, Adv., Mr. Anand Singh, Adv., Ms. Sanjana Mehrotra, Adv., Mr. Ajay Kanojiya, Adv., Mr. Shubham Dwivedi, Adv., Mr. Rudra Rout, Adv., Mr. Vinay Kaushik, Adv., Ms. Shikha John, Adv., Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G JUDGEMENT Dr Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, CJI Table of Contents A. Background 5 B. Previous orders of the Court 8 C. Su....
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.... 4750 centres in 571 cities. The exam was also conducted in fourteen cities overseas. Soon after the exam, it became known that the question paper was leaked or illegally circulated amongst some students prior to the conduct of the exam at Hazaribagh in Jharkhand and in Patna. First Information Reports "FIR" were registered in multiple states including Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jharkhand. The Bihar Police appears to have issued a press release Dated 10 May 2024 stating that its Economic Offences Unit had arrested thirteen persons in Patna in connection with the leak. The Additional Director General of Police, Economic Offences Unit appears to have issued a communication stating that the Economic Offences Unit has not released an official press statement. 5. When the results were declared by NTA on 4 June 2024, it emerged that compensatory or grace marks were awarded to 1563 candidates at certain centres who did not have the opportunity to utilize the entire duration of the exam (i.e., 3 hours 20 minutes). The compensatory marks were awarded upon the recommendation of the Grievance Redressal Committee constituted by NTA. Following the grant of grace marks, these ....
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....be conducted on 23 June 2024 and the results would be declared before 30 June 2024. The re-test was conducted and the results were declared. 10. By its order dated 8 July 2024, this Court noted the central submissions urged on behalf of the petitioners. It observed that the question of whether the paper leak was confined only to Patna or extended across cities was a matter which must be reserved for more detailed consideration. It also noted that the litmus test for whether a re-test ought to be directed was based on the following aspects: a. Whether the alleged breach took place at a systemic level; b. Whether the breach was of a nature which affected the integrity of the entire examination process; and c. Whether it was possible to segregate the beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students. 11. The Court also made certain observations on the competing considerations in a case such as the present one: "12. In a situation where the breach in the sanctity of an examination affects the entirety of the process and it is not possible to segregate those who are the beneficiaries of wrongdoing from others, a re-test is likely to be the ....
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....the CBI to file a status report indicating the status of the investigation and the material which had been gathered until date. The Investigating Officer was directed to specify the modalities by which the leaked question paper was made available to students. Additionally, both NTA and the CBI were directed make a disclosure in regard to the steps which had been taken to identify the beneficiaries of the leak. They were required to detail the following: "16. ... (i) The steps which were taken by NTA to identify the centres/cities at which the leak took place; (ii) The modalities followed for identifying the beneficiaries of the leak; and (iii) The number of students who have so far been identified to be the beneficiaries of the leaked question papers and the centres at which they appeared for the examination." 14. Third, the Union of India and NTA were directed to inform the Court as to whether it was feasible to use data analytics to identify suspicious cases. If such an approach was found to be feasible, the parameters used for flagging such cases (such as abnormal score patterns) were required to be placed on record. 15. Fourth, NTA was required ....
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....s one of the questions in the examination was proper. The contours of this issue are delineated in detail in subsequent segments of this judgment. As one of the sub-issues concerned the correct answer to the question, the Court sought an expert opinion from the Indian Institute of Technology, "IIT" Delhi. The Director of IIT, Delhi was requested to constitute a team of three experts to determine the correct answer to the question and communicate its opinion to the Court by 12 noon on the following day. The opinion of the expert committee was then communicated to the Court, as requested. 21. On 23 July 2024, the arguments in the case were concluded and the conclusions were pronounced in court after the hearings concluded. The Court held that the standard prescribed by decisions of this court for the cancellation of the test had not been met and that a re-test was not warranted. The conclusion of the Court rested on the absence of sufficient material, as on that date, indicative of a widespread or systemic leak or other malpractice. The conclusions of the Court are reproduced below: "11. ... (i) The fact that a leak of the NEET (UG) 2024 paper took place at Hazaribagh in ....
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....be involved in wrong doing at any stage, notwithstanding the completion of the counselling process. No student who is revealed to have engaged in acts of fraud or to have been the beneficiary of malpractice would be entitled to claim a vested right or interest in the continuation of the admission in the future by virtue of the findings in this judgment; and (vii) Directing a fresh NEET (UG) to be conducted for the present year would be replete with serious consequences for over two million students who have appeared in the examination. Adopting such a course of action would, in particular, (i) lead to a disruption of the admission schedule for the commencement of medical courses, setting back the entire process by several months; (ii) lead to cascading effects on the course of medical education; (iii) impact the availability of qualified medical professionals in the future; and (iv) cause a serious element of disadvantage to students belonging to marginalized communities and weaker sections for whom reservation has been made in the allocation of seats." 22. The Court also accepted the report of IIT, Delhi on the correct answer to a particular question which was the subj....
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....ons who may tamper with them if they choose to; g. NTA has not adopted a fair marking system for one of the questions. Although only one option is the correct answer, it has treated two options as being correct and has awarded marks for both answers. This is unfair and disadvantages many candidates; h. The question paper was leaked via 'Telegram' (an instant messaging platform); i. There are discrepancies in the data provided in 'Table 8' of NTA's press release dated 4 June 2024 compared to the results announced on 20 July 2024; j. The report of the Director, IIT Madras overlooks critical issues such as: (i) the unusually high number of candidates scoring the perfect score i.e., 720/720; (ii) a sharp increase in students scoring above 700 marks; (iii) significant rank inflation in the 600-720 range; and (iv) the concentration of top scorers in a limited number of cities; k. The report of the Director, IIT Madras is not reliable because there is a conflict of interest with this case. This is due to the Director being a member of the General Body of NTA; l. The selective awarding of compensatory marks to 1563 aspirants without tra....
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....ncy on coaching centres. The top 100 candidates were from 95 different centres in fifty-six different cities in eighteen States or Union Territories; d. With reference to the question in controversy, the information bulletin released before the exam clearly states that if there are two correct answers, those who marked either one will be awarded marks. Therefore, candidates cannot claim that they did not answer this question because two correct answers were present; e. The report by the Director of IIT, Madras indicated that there was no evidence of mass malpractice or localized advantages in score distribution. It observed that there was an increase in marks, particularly in the range of 550 to 720, and attributed this to a 25% reduction in syllabus. Candidates achieving high scores were found across multiple cities and centres, suggesting minimal likelihood of malpractice; f. There was no leak of the question paper via Telegram; g. The results of candidates suspected of malpractice have been withheld. Show cause notices have been issued to such persons. NTA will respond appropriately to any future cases of malpractice as well; h. A committee ha....
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....ty measures. 30. Simultaneously, OMR sheets were printed at a different location and paired with the corresponding question papers which were then sealed in polythene covers to be accessible only to the candidates. These materials, totalling 72 booklets per batch, were then secured in cloth-lined envelopes, strapped, and placed in GPS-enabled trunks with electronic locks, which were monitored via real-time CCTV throughout the process. 31. The final stage involves the transportation and distribution of the question papers to the examination centres. The question papers for Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, were dispatched on 28 April 2024, via a private logistics company and transported in dedicated closed-body vehicles with electronic locks and GPS tracking. 32. The two different sets of question papers were stored in two separate custodian banks, in all cities: one set was stored in Canara Bank and the other in State Bank of India. "SBI" Upon arrival at the custodian banks on 3 May 2024, the materials were stored in safety vaults. The papers were then transported from the banks to the examination centres using e-rickshaws. 33. On the day of the examination, city coordinators, app....
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....g the transfer of the investigation to it, the CBI has filed its status reports dated 10 July 2024, 17 July 2024 and 21 July 2024. The reports presently indicate that the Botany and Zoology segments were solved first, followed by the Physics and Chemistry segments. According to the report, the scanned papers were subsequently sent over WhatsApp to persons in Patna. Furthermore, the reports stated that the solved papers were sent to persons in Hazaribagh. Specifically, two locations in Patna and two in Hazaribagh were identified in the report. The investigation (at this stage) has revealed that the question paper was shared with the candidates only after 10:15 AM, and after 12 noon, they were asked to go to their examination centres. 38. NTA issued a press release on 5 May 2024, acknowledging the issue of incorrect distribution of question papers, which resulted in a significant loss of time for the candidates at Girls Higher Secondary Model School, Mandir, Mantown, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. However, during the course of arguments before us, it emerged that twelve centres initially received question papers from Canara Bank instead of SBI. Of these, four centres replaced the pape....
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....ion materials. This method might be vulnerable to theft, tampering, and mishandling, posing a serious risk to the integrity of the examination process. Although no lapses on this count have emerged this year, the possibility of such lapses is enough to warrant a change in the mode of transportation. 43. Thirdly, the use of private courier services for transporting examination materials introduces variability in handling standards and may not ensure the same level of security as official channels. Proper protocols and accountability measures need to be in place to ensure that such services maintain the highest standards of security and reliability. 44. Fourthly, CCTV surveillance is essential for monitoring activities and ensuring that all procedures are followed correctly. Any deficiency makes it challenging to prevent, detect, and address any irregularities or breaches that may occur during the examination process. ii. The marks awarded for one of the questions must be revised because only one of the options is the correct answer. 45. One of the questions in the NEET (UG) 2024 exam was as follows: "Given below are two statements: Statement I: At....
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....ity v. Samir Gupta, 1983 4 SCC 309. if prima facie a question is considered ambiguous, such a question should be deleted. This precedent emphasizes the need for clarity and precision in competitive examinations to maintain fairness and transparency. 49. On 22 July 2024, this Court requested the Director of IIT, Delhi to constitute a three-member committee to determine the correct answer. The Director and Professor from the Department of Energy Science & Engineering, reported on 23 July 2024, that a committee had been formed. This committee consisted of Professors Pradipta Ghosh, Aditya Narain Agnihotri, and Sankalpa Ghosh from the Department of Physics. 50. The expert team constituted has opined that option (4) is the correct answer. This answer reads as follows: "(4) Statement I is correct but Statement II is incorrect." 51. The committee formed at IIT, Delhi has unequivocally clarified the correct answer, confirming that option (4) is indeed accurate. This option was initially identified by the NTA as the correct answer. Moreover, options (2) and (4) are mutually exclusive, meaning they cannot both be correct simultaneously. 52. The team of experts from IIT D....
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....the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any large-scale examination indicating no abnormality. b. City wise and center wise analysis was done for two years (2023 and 2024) to find out if there are any abnormal indications. The Analysis is carried out for the Top 1.4 lakh ranks given that the total number of seats across the country is around 1.1 lakhs. c. This Analysis is granular enough to indicate any abnormality, had a large number of students gotten into high ranks (top 5%), due to malpractice or if students from a particular exam-centre or city were benefitted. d. The analysis shows that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localized set of candidate being benefitted leading to abnormal scores. e. There is an overall increase in the marks obtained by students, specifically in the range of 550 to 720. This increase is seen across the cities and centres. This is attributed to 25% reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and multiple centers, indicating very less likelihood of malpractice." 56. Counsel for the petitioners expressed concerns about the in....
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....ed to work in terms of the policy laid down by the latter. 60. From a comparison of the functions of the Managing Committee with those of the General Body, it is evident that the General Body is responsible for supervising the administration of NTA and exercising general oversight of its functioning while the Managing Committee is in charge of its day-to-day administration. Members of the General Body would not, it appears, have a hand in formulating the detailed protocol for the conduct of every examination or in responding to concerns that arise in real-time. Further, the current Director of IIT Madras, Prof. V Kamakoti nominated Prof. A Gopala krishna to attend the most recently held meeting of the General Body, on 29 September 2023. The last meeting Prof. Kamakoti attended was on 29 December 2022. A combination of all these factors (including the fact that he is merely an ex officio member of the General Body) lead us to the conclusion that the report of the Director of IIT Madras cannot be faulted on the ground of bias. In any event, in the interests of justice and fairness, the Court has independently considered the data placed on record before reaching a decision on wheth....
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....m the observations of this Court in Bihar School Examination Board v. Subhas Chandra Sinha, (1970) 1 SCC 648 it can be seen that the number or proportion of students who can be believed to have indulged in malpractice is a relevant factor in deciding cases such as the present one. The relevant observations are extracted below: "13. This is not a case of any particular individual who is being charged with adoption of unfair means but of the conduct of all the examinees or at least a vast majority of them at a particular centre. If it is not a question of charging any one individually with unfair means but to condemn the examination as ineffective for the purpose it was held ..." 64. In Madhyamic Shiksha Mandal, M.P. v. Abhilash Shiksha Prasar Samiti, (1998) 9 SCC 236 the Board concerned with the exam in that case cancelled the exam upon receiving a report from a Naib Tehsildar who had visited the exam centre. He found that the students were copying even before the question paper was distributed and that they were permitted to enter the exam hall with their books and other material. The report also stated that the invigilators and supervisors did nothing to prevent the st....
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....udgment as well as the observations of the Court in Rajesh PU (supra) at paragraph 69 of this judgment. This is also why courts are required to assess the extent of the use of unfair means and separately, consider whether it is possible to separate tainted and untainted candidates. A holistic view must be taken. 67. In arriving at a conclusion as to whether an examination suffers from widespread issues, courts must ensure that allegations of malpractice are substantiated and that the material on record, including investigative reports, point to that conclusion. There must be at least some evidence to allow the Court to reach that conclusion. This standard need not be unduly strict. To elaborate, it is not necessary for the material on record to point to one and only conclusion which is that malpractice has taken place at a systemic level. However, there must be a 14 In this regard, see our analysis of Anamica Mishra (supra) at paragraph 62 of this judgment as well as the observations of the Court in Rajesh PU (supra) at paragraph 69 of this judgment. real possibility of systemic malaise as borne out by the material before the Court. In Bihar School Examination Board (supra), thi....
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....ing but total disregard of relevancies and allowing to be carried away by irrelevancies, giving a complete goby to contextual considerations throwing to the winds the principle of proportionality in going farther than what was strictly and reasonably to meet the situation." (emphasis supplied) b. The present case 70. That the question paper was leaked and some students indulged in malpractice is beyond cavil. No party before the Court including NTA disputes this. The question, however, is whether this leak was systemic and of a nature as to vitiate the sanctity of the exam. There are various aspects in this case which require the consideration of the Court - the inflation of marks and ranks, the leak of the question paper, other forms of malpractice, the reopening of the registration window, the change of city when the form was opened for corrections, and the award of compensatory marks to 1563 students. These are considered in turn. 71. At the outset, it is necessary to understand certain aspects of the NEET. It is well-known that the counselling process or the process by which admission is gained into different medical colleges depends on the rank of the candida....
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....age of success from different centres did not account for seats which would be allotted on the basis of reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes, and Economically Weaker Sections. Were such seats to be accounted for, the figure of 1,08,000 would almost be halved. Hence, the data analysis errs on the side of caution. 74. Certain centres found themselves in the midst of the controversy in this case. It was averred that malpractice was widespread in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, Patna, Bihar, and Godhra, Gujarat. The data provided by NTA in relation to Hazaribagh for 2024 is as below: a. 2733 candidates in total appeared for the exam; b. 126 candidates are within Rank 1,08,000. This indicates a success rate of 4.6%; and c. 58 candidates are within Rank 56,000. This indicates a success rate of 2.1%. Further, the statistics from previous editions of the NEET indicate that the success rate (relative to the total number of available seats) for Hazaribagh was 7.2% in 2022 and 6.0% in 2023. When these figures are compared with the success rate for 2024 which is 4.6%, no abnormality becomes evident. To the contrary, the success r....
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....2024 to 9 March 2024. The last date for registration was later extended to 16 March 2024. Thereafter, NTA reopened the registration portal for two days - 9 and 10 April 2024. During the course of the hearing, the Court enquired into the reasons for the reopening as well as the performance of the candidates who registered when the portal was reopened. 79. NTA stated that it received numerous representations from candidates who raised issues related to One Time Passwords, Aadhar authentication, uploading of documents, and payment. Other technical issues were also raised. Further, it appears that the High Courts of Rajasthan and Karnataka directed NTA to permit certain petitioners, who reported such issues during their registration, to register after the last date. NTA states that it reopened the registration portal to permit all similarly situated candidates to submit their forms for the exam. 80. The data submitted to the Court reflects the performance of the candidates who registered for the exam on 9 and 10 April 2024 and thereafter, appeared for the exam. The students who registered on these dates but did not appear for the exam are excluded from this analysis. Of the 8039 ....
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....t and concrete material must be present before the Court can infer that this led to mass malpractice. 82. The parties in the hearing also addressed submissions on a video on Telegram (an instant messaging application) purportedly showing the leaked paper. It was alleged that the leak took place on 4 May 2024. The NTA, in its affidavit, stated that the video shared on Telegram was fabricated and the time-stamp was altered to indicate that the leak took place before the examination date. The investigation by CBI revealed that the images in the video were indeed doctored. The Telegram channel itself was created on 6 May 2024 and the paper was uploaded on 7 May 2024. Hence, there is no merit in this allegation. 83. As for the re-exam conducted for the 1563 candidates who were initially awarded compensatory marks, the order of this Court dated 13 June 2024 found the reexam to be fair and justified. The issue no longer subsists. NTA was also permitted to act accordingly following the test which was held, by the order of this Court dated 23 July 2024. 84. Hence, sufficient material is not on record at present which indicates a systemic leak or systemic malpractice of other forms.....
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....ity of the All India Pre-Medical and Pre-Dental Entrance Test 2015 on the ground that the integrity of the exam had been compromised by the use of unfair means. After the exam was conducted, news reports revealed that answer keys had been transmitted to many candidates in the course of the examination, using electronic devices. The Court noticed the following from multiple status reports filed by the investigating agency in that case: a. Some arrested persons stated that they had planned to recover Rs. 20 lakhs from each student who wished to avail of their services to cheat in the exam; b. One of the arrested persons was a doctor. Several answer keys were found to be stored on his mobile phone. They were also forwarded to two other mobile numbers using WhatsApp; c. Vests for men and women fitted with micro SIMs were recovered from some persons suspected to be involved in the scam; d. Bluetooth devices were recovered from a person suspected of facilitating cheating; e. The question paper had been leaked in Behror, Alwar District, Rajasthan. The arrested persons planned to communicate the answers to the students during the conduct of the ....
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....he date of the exam. Once shared through social media, it is exceedingly difficult to trace the journey of a post or message or document. Here, the record at present does not indicate that the question paper was shared on social media before the date of the exam. Third, In Tanvi Sarwal's case (supra), the assistance of a gang with a nationwide network was stated to have been taken and calls were made by the accused to persons living in numerous states in the country. No such nationwide ring is seen at present in this case. Fourth, the Court found that it was not possible to separate the beneficiaries of the leak from the honest candidates. Here, the Court has concluded that the fraudulent candidates may be identified by the investigating agency. For these reasons, the decision in Tanvi Sarwal (supra) does not support the case of the petitioners. The allegations in this case are not substantiated by the material on record. 90. In Sachin Kumar's case (supra), the two-Judge Bench of this Court (of which one of us, D Y Chandrachud, J., was a part) was concerned with the recruitment process for the post of Head Clerk. The Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi cancelle....
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....d to the conclusion that there was mass malpractice, which attacked the integrity of the exam at a systemic level. This is indicated by the fact that a large number of candidates in the zone of selection were from the same concentrated geographical region and that candidates from the same family were sitting in consecutive spots during the exam. There was also impersonation and the coordinated dilution of security protocols in that case. There was an abundance of material before the Court in that case. The same cannot be said to be true in the instant case. Hence, the ruling in that case cannot influence the outcome in this case. Moreover, in cases such as these, courts must take a holistic view of the facts before them and reach an independent conclusion. Different courses of action are appropriate in different circumstances. F. The conduct of NTA: Cause for concern 95. While the various issues discussed until now do not lead to the conclusion that the integrity of the NEET was vitiated at a systemic level, the manner in which NTA has organised the exam this year gives rise to serious concerns. The Court is cognizant of the fact that national-level exams with participation f....
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....or that the information as to which question paper was to be distributed to candidates was not properly communicated to them. Certainly, neither Canara Bank nor SBI appear to have been notified as to whether the papers in their custody were to be released. As long as the city coordinators furnished proof of authorisation, the papers were released without question. The custodian banks have to be informed as to whether they should release the question papers in their possession. Had the custodian banks been informed whether or not to release the papers in their possession, the city coordinators would have been unable to collect the incorrect set of question papers, even if they made an honest mistake. NTA must consider the various possibilities and plan the protocol to be followed after careful consideration. 98. The use of mobile applications to communicate with the relevant parties would permit real-time communication and allow NTA to inform the banks even a few minutes before the time at which the city coordinator was authorised to collect the papers. This would ensure that no unscrupulous persons from the custodian banks can take advantage of the information made available to ....
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....ts. A body such as NTA which is entrusted with immense responsibility in relation to highly important competitive exams cannot afford to misstep, take an incorrect decision, and amend it at a later stage. All decisions must be well-considered, with due regard to the importance of the decision. Flipflops are an anathema to fairness. 101. Intense competition amongst the aspirants coupled with the commercialisation of education has led to a few towns or cities becoming hubs for classes which train candidates for competitive exams. While these towns or cities may have a higher rate of success than some others, instances of malpractice at such centres should be treated on par with any other instance. All instances of the use of unfair means must be dealt with firmly. 102. NTA is directed to ensure that all the concerns highlighted by the Court in this judgment are addressed. The committee constituted by the Union Government is also requested to keep these issues in mind while formulating its recommendations. G. Issues in the conduct of the examination and the remit of the committee constituted by the Union Government 103. During the hearing, the petitioners urged that there ....
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....sts of fairness and transparency. The preferences of candidates may continue to be accounted for; iv. Recommend stricter procedures for verifying candidate identities, if required, with a view to preventing impersonation and ensuring that only registered and authorized candidates are allowed to take the exams. Such processes may include, but are not limited to, enhanced identity checks at various stages of the exam (such as registration, entry to the exam centre, and before the commencement of the exam) and technological innovations to prevent impersonation. All procedures should comply with laws on privacy; v. Consider the viability of comprehensive CCTV surveillance systems at all examination centers, including real-time monitoring and recording of all activities. The aim is to deter and detect any malpractice or unauthorized activities and to provide evidence in case of incidents; vi. Review and suggest enhancements for the processes for the setting, printing, transportation, storage, and handling of question papers. This may include tamper-evident packaging and using secure logistics providers to prevent unauthorized access and leaks during critical p....
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....TA to any malpractice which is identified; iii. Recommend the implementation of a comprehensive communication strategy to keep all stakeholders involved in the process - including banks, examination centres, and logistical partners - well-informed. This strategy should detail the protocols for secure transportation, storage, and handling of examination materials, and ensure regular updates on any issues or changes; and iv. Recommend measures to address and mitigate any socioeconomic disparities that may affect candidates' ability to participate in or benefit from the examination process. This might include providing support and resources to underprivileged candidates to ensure equal opportunities and reduce barriers to entry; d. Collaboration and International Cooperation i. Consider the viability of NTA engaging in international cooperation with examination bodies and educational authorities from other countries to share best practices, security measures, and innovative solutions; and ii. Suggest the creation of a management framework to identify, assess, and mitigate potential risks related to examination security. This framework s....