Supreme Court refuses to hear appeal against govt’s decision to cancel UGC-NET exam

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a fresh plea filed by some examinees challenging the government’s decision to cancel the UGC-NET exam following the alleged leak of question papers, saying that hearing the plea at this stage would lead to “chaos”.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said the government will conduct the exam afresh on August 21 and the students, numbering around 900,000, need to have some “assurance” now.

“The Supreme Court’s entry now will have grave consequences and create chaos everywhere,” the CJI said while refusing to entertain the petition filed by Praveen Dabas and others.

The judges said the exam took place on June 18 and was canceled a day later.

“Considering the appeal at this stage would only increase uncertainty and add to the chaos,” the CJI said, adding that the central government needs to be “doubly cautious after the NEET-UG fiasco and hence it has been cancelled. Let the process continue now.”

The top court had earlier dismissed a public complaint in the case, finding that 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 told the lawyer, adding “while dismissing the above PIL, we are not expressing any opinion on merit.”

The judges asked advocate Ujjawal Gaur, who filed the petition as a petitioner, to focus on the legal issues and leave these matters to the aggrieved parties.

Earlier, an appeal was also filed against the decision of the Ministry of Education and the National Examinations Agency to cancel the UGC-NET exam after reports emerged that its integrity may have been compromised.

On June 19, the ministry ordered cancellation of the UGC-NET exam and referred the case to the CBI for investigation.