SC declines plea challenging govt decision to cancel UGC-NET exam

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a fresh plea filed by some examinees challenging the government's decision to cancel the UGC-NET examination following alleged question paper leak, saying that entertaining it at this stage will create "chaos."

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said the government is conducting the exam afresh on August 21 and the students, who are around nine lakh, must have some kind of "certainty now."

"The Supreme Court stepping now will have a serious effect and there will be chaos all over," the CJI said while declining to entertain the plea filed by Praveen Dabas and others. The bench said the exam was held on June 18 and was cancelled a day after that.

"Entertaining the plea at the present stage would only add to uncertainty and add to utter chaos," the CJI said, adding the Central government must be "doubly cautious after the NEET-UG fiasco and thus it was cancelled. Let this process go on now." Earlier, the top court had dismissed a PIL on the issue, saying it was filed by a lawyer and not by aggrieved candidates.

"Why are you (lawyer) coming? Let the students come here themselves," the CJI had told the lawyer, adding "while declining the above PIL, we express nothing on merits". The bench had asked advocate Ujjawal Gaur, who has filed the PIL as a petitioner, to focus on some legal matters and leave such issues for aggrieved persons.

The earlier plea was also filed against the decision of the Union education ministry and the National Testing Agency to cancel the UGC-NET exam following inputs that its integrity may have been compromised. The ministry on June 19 had ordered the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam and handed over the matter to the CBI for an investigation.