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The Supreme Court on Thursday deliberated on the exact date and time of the “leak” of the NEET-UG 2024 exam question papers. Did it happen before May 3 or just 45 minutes before the exam on May 5? Or did the paper leak when the question papers were with the banks or centres or private players/printers?
Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Thursday, said there were two scenarios for the paper leak and “the whole hypothesis that the entire paper was solved in 45 minutes and given to the students is very far-fetched.”
Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the NTA and the Centre, argued that there was “no leak” but a “breach” had occurred “at a particular centre, between 8.02 am and 9.23 am”. “A person goes in, takes a picture of the paper and comes out,” he said, Live Law reported.
To this, the CJI said, “Suppose that happened, then according to you, the students got the papers at 10.15 am.” [during exams]There are 180 questions. Is it possible to have problem solvers present between 9:30 and 10:15 and send them to students in 45 minutes?
CJI: If students get the paper after 10 am, is it possible that between 9:30 and 10:15 am they can solve the paper in 45 minutes and send it to the students..
SG: There were 7 paper solvers and each solved 25 questions.
Chief Justice: The whole idea is that within 45 minutes…
— Bar and Bench (@barandbench) July 18, 2024
The SG claimed that there were seven solvers and they were divided among 25 students each. “The questions were tricky, so the students had to memorise them,” he said.
“The whole hypothesis that the entire paper was solved in 45 minutes and given to the students is very far-fetched,” the CJI said, adding that after the SG spoke in between, even an hour “seems far-fetched”.
The Chief Justice further said, “What is of concern to us is, what was the time gap between the occurrence of the violation and the examination? If the time period is 3 days, then obviously the risk is high.”
The Chief Justice said, “Does anybody pay Rs 75,000 for 45 minutes?”
landscape
During the hearing on Thursday, petitioner’s counsel Hooda said that the NTA says that the question papers were sent to the examination centres through a private courier company on April 24. These question papers reached the State Bank of India (SBI) and Canara Bank on May 3.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that these question papers were sent to SBI/Canara Bank branches in 571 cities.
CJI Chandrachud said there were two possibilities of the paper being leaked. “If it was leaked before it reached the banks… the leak must have happened before May 3… or the leak must have happened after the paper was distributed from the banks and bound for the centres… so it is unlikely that the paper would have leaked between 8:15 and 10:15 as envisaged by the NTA… it was solved and students memorised it,” he said.
CBI will investigate…
The Chief Justice later said that the probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would reveal when the case was registered. The accused received the question paper. “This will reveal the time period of the leak,” he said.
The Chief Justice further said that “the smaller it is, [the time period is] The more widespread the leak, the less likely it is… like paying Rs 75 lakh for a paper that was leaked 45 minutes ago…”
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