The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea challenging the government's decision to cancel UGC-NET over question paper leaks.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea challenging the government's decision to cancel UGC-NET over question paper leaks. The matter was heard on Monday (August 12) before a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra. Currently, the National Testing Agency (NTA) is going to conduct the UGC NET exam from 21st August 2024. According to a PTI report, a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra said that the government is conducting the exam afresh. August 21 and about nine lakh students must now have some kind of “certainty”.

Refusing to hear a petition filed by Praveen Dabas and others, the CJI said, “Supreme Court's step now will have dire consequences and lead to chaos everywhere.” The bench said the exam was held on June 18 and was canceled a day later. “Entertaining the petition at this stage will only increase uncertainty and lead to total chaos,” the CJI said, adding that the central government “should be doubly cautious after the NEET-UG scam and its cancellation. Let this process continue now.”

“Why are you (lawyer) coming? Let the students come here themselves,” the chief justice told the lawyers

Earlier, the Supreme Court had dismissed a PIL on the issue, saying it was filed by a lawyer and not by the aggrieved candidates. “Why are you (lawyer) coming? Let the students come here themselves,” the CJI had told the lawyer, adding, “While rejecting the above PIL, we are not expressing anything on merits”. According to a PTI report, the bench had asked advocate Ujwal Gaur, who filed the PIL as a petitioner, to focus on certain legal issues and leave such issues for the victims.

An earlier petition was also filed against the decision to cancel the UGC-NET exam after it was reported that the integrity of the Union Education Ministry and the National Testing Agency had been compromised. The ministry had on June 19 ordered the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam and handed over the matter to the CBI for investigation.

“On June 19, 2024, the University Grants Commission (UGC) received some inputs regarding the examination from the National Cyber ​​Crime Threat Analytics Unit of the Indian Cyber ​​Crime Coordination Center (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs. These inputs prima facie indicate that the integrity of the aforementioned examination may have been compromised,” the press release said.

“To ensure high level of transparency and sanctity of the examination process, the Ministry of Education, Government of India has decided to cancel the UGC-NET June 2024 examination. A fresh examination will be conducted, for which information will be shared separately. Simultaneously, the matter is being handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for thorough investigation,” the statement added.

UGC NET re-exam from 21st August

As per revised schedule, National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct UGC – NET June 2024 for (i) 'Award of Junior Research Fellowship and appointment as Assistant Professor', (ii) 'Award of Assistant Professor and PhD admission. D.' and (iii) 'admission for Ph.D. from 21 August to 4 September 2024 in 83 subjects in CBT only'. The exam will be conducted in two shifts. Exam city slip and admit card will be released soon at https://ugcnet.nta.ac.in/ anytime.

Candidates are advised to visit NTA website(s) www.nta.ac.in and https://ugcnet.nta.ac.in for latest updates. For further clarification regarding UGC – NET June 2024, candidates may contact 011-40759000 or email ugcnet@nta.ac.in.

(with PTI input)