Transcript for:
Lecture on Examination Paper Leak Investigation

this second paragraph at page 292 to read that it says it was received on mobile phone by this gang when were they received uh they here they say 5th of May 2024 in the morning and the students were made in groups were made to memorize the answers to these questions this is what the finding is as a matter of fact we have a video which was shown to me it's a uh telegram uh channel channel where it has been recorded which is on 4th of May the question paper and answers were being circulated on a telegram Channel this has been captured the date and the telegram Channel we had and the questions have been M the same question when were the question papers lodged in the locker what they will be able to tell me when were the question papers sent to the locker five six days prior to the specific date specific date and second when were they pulled out of the locker two lockers right State Bank of India and can Bank bank now when were they pulled out of the Locker on the date of the exam that is on Fifth minut not only the date which is relevant the time reference what time was the examination held 5th 5th minutes what time was it h 2 in the 2:00 520 3 hours 20 minutes now what what time were they pulled out of the Locker on the fifth around minutes 10:30 11 now at how many centers in India were the was the exam conducted in India 4,750 minut 4,750 centers how many right how many cities now please give us specific 571 and 15 centers were abroad minutes 71 cities yes pleas and how many centers abroad 14 minutes 14 cities 14 cities Cent B now tell us uh how many students appeared totally 24 lakhs around around 24 minutes you have the precise figure 23 lakh 73 I I'll give you 23 LH 33297 against registration of 24 lakhs and plus 72,000 students my lords did not take the exam spite registration now uh how were the papers distributed abroad they were sent and when were they sent abroad the embassies through the embassies and how are they sent to the embassies get the details were they sent by The Diplomatic bag were they sent by Courier I'll find out and on record and second if the uh now they were the the the the exam was held in as many as 4,750 centers yes ma in 571 cities yes maam right yes now uh when you say that the two booklets we'll call them yes A and B set a and set B yes uh they were sent to these cities when were they sent to these cities yes F when were they sent to approximately about don't tell us the precise I'll get the exact dates when were they and how were they send to those cities yes I'll get dets bear police and was and and were they lodged in the State Bank and Canada Bank in each of these cities or what happened each of the Cities they are lodged with the custodians who are canra bank and State Bank so we want to know on what date were the question papers sent where were they when were they when the question papers were prepared yes right question papers are prepared by one person or uh more than one person group of experts question papers are prepared at the headquarters where are the headquarters Delhi in Delhi so two sets are prepared by two different groups or one group by the same group one one second one second the same group of experts two different sets of question at the headquarters after they have prepared they given to the NTA yes right now tell us tell us when when did the group of persons conduct the prepare the question papers and give you the question papers dates I I'll get the dates right we want to know what was the date on which these question papers were prepared and given to you point one yes after they were received by NTA in what custody they were preserved when did NTA send them to the State Bank of India and Canada Bank to different cities in between printing is there printing presses when are they sent to the printing which is the printing press yes we will get the details we want to know which is the printing press yes when did you send these question papers to the printing press yes ma what were the transportation arrangements made for sending them to the printing press yes ma when did the printing press after the printing press them we now talking of 23 24 lakhs 50 lakh sets right because 24 lakh had how many sets were printed correct and after they were printed where were they sent are they sent back to the headquarters at Delhi yes please huh the the remaining sheets no unutilized ones no no after the question paper is set it is sent for printing yes you have a printing press a yes you need not tell us where the printing press is otherwise next year there'll be they will go to that now it is sent to that printing press yes right how is it sent to the printing press under what custody yes second after they are printed how do the printing how do the printing press send it back to NTA between that date and give us that date how many days had elapsed between that and the distribution of the question question papers to these 471 cities and 4,750 Center entire movement PL I'll prepare a track starting from the preparation of the question paper see I'll tell you why we are asking if we come to the conclusion that the time lag between the leak and the actual date of the examination is relatively limited yes then that would be a circumstance which would militate against holding a retest not if the time lag between the leak and the actual examination brother Mish actually men then is wider then there's a greater chance that the Malay is across the system I get it I'll get if if it appears that the question papers were leaked on the morning of the 5th exam was scheduled at 2:00 students were made to memorize the questions that may be one indicator that the leak was not as widespread somebody who has a question paper is not going to ask students to sit down and memorize them and give on the spot memorize them how many answers can a student memorize there are two aspects therefore we we have to have some clarity on facts for us to understand whether this is so systemic that we must order a see there are two or three consideration which way one if the if the sanctity of the examination has been lost then a test has to be ordered right yeah if we are not able to identify students who are candidates who are guilty of wrongdoing R test has to be ordered if you can't distinguish the grain from the shaft that is the tainted from the untainted h test has to be ordered your lord on the other hand right on the other hand on the other hand we are dealing with now a situation of 23 lakh students may be farfetch for us to at least presume unless they point out material to us that all 23 lakh students or a substantial number of them are involved in the fraud for what we know a large number of students maybe just honest students who appeared for the exam LGE number we have to but we have to see we have to see if you know second what was the modality one more very important aspect what was the modality in which the leak was detected if sorry if the leak took place if the modality of the leak is through electronic means social media then there's a possibility that the leak is extremely that is the point said is all correct you know we are flagging these issues we want you to therefore give us a comprehensive analysis of dates certainly because if the leak is taking place through say telegram if it is taken through WhatsApp that happen you know because if it's through social media or any electronic means of communication like wildfire on the other hand uh we must also balance it out as about the time at which the leak takes place if it's more or less in the morning of the 5ifth then the time between when the leak takes place and the students have to go for the examination is very limited watch on the is a hard decision one more thing in which we require some assistance from both Sid please don't treat it as an adversary the reason for the reason for the reason one second for the reason that whatever view we ultimately take this view is impacting the lives of 20 second right second second we want to understand is it possible for the court to identify red flags right so can we identify either we do it or we appoint an expert committee to identify the red flag I'll give you some examples of red flags 720 out of 720 all every everybody out who's get 720 is not a fraud star there may be still people who are extraordinarily bright that 720 out of 720 but we found that for the previous years the proportion was very low now this year suddenly it goes up to 67 how many out of those 720 are people from that 1563 who are beneficiaries of the added Grace mark given the details in our count 81 places no we just want you to now put it down on a piece of paper for us uh second second we want to understand is so a change in a change in centers is possible Right a change in centers is possible suppose a student I was just telling my brothers at lunch suppose a student is registered at lnno suddenly you find that student has gone from lnno to a distant Center and gets very and gets the 720 yes suppose somebody is registered at Amad and suddenly goes to a fairly so that may be one that may be one example consider so we can you know we will have to do some if we have to sh separate the grain from the Sha we will have to identify certain red flags that those who fall in that red flag category we may have to then hold a limited retest for that category alone second is it possible to do using the Cyber forensic unit of say the uh Ministry of Home Affairs or whatever is it possible to do a data analytics on the on the entire result and to identify now there may be one category I was thinking you know when we were reflecting on this matter students who get exceptionally High marks in the in the need but whose performance is not reflected in the 12th there again but there again I'll tell you one thing one second there again there is a there's a problem students don't study as hard for the 12th as they study for only one another another red flag another red flag FL a student get exceptionally High marks in one in one one faculty of science like say physics or chemistry right but gets five marks in the others so you know because it may be unlikely that a student who is doing so brilliantly in one would not have studied at at all for the other faculty so the only point is that you know I'm not sure whether we should be doing this or whether these they have not declared the entire result also as brother Mishra says does the full marks have a pattern we also I wanted to answer that we also want to understand we also want to understand the the pattern of neat itself well it's the pattern quickly well only 45 questions on physics 45 questions on chemistry 45 on zoology and botony to totally 180 four marks so 45 questions on physics 45 on chemistry 45 on math on boty and 45 on zoology so 45 times of four that is 180 180 into 4 720 right if you if you get a wrong answer minus one so therefore if you had uh given 179 right uh right answers your score would have been 720 minus 5 that is 715 here there have been answers uh scores of 78 79 mathematically impossible because you lose four answer was that it is because of the grace marks to ret give me two minutes give me minutes submission something just some figures which are handy and that might answer I'm oblig question it's a very pertinent question we examine the pattern of 100 top ranking students those who were in the first 100 the analysis comes that they were distributed amongst 95 centers in 56 cities in 18 states or union territories the the top 100 the top 100 H they are found that they appeared in 95 centers located in 56 cities which are spread out in 18 states or un and my Lord one second one second now page 86 of my reply page 37 is the one more thing which we want to know now is that how many fi have been matter has been handed over to CBI for investigation I I'll just tell you uh totally how many FS have been registered uh one F paper leak in Patna R Mal are FS for some local Mal practice how many totally FS have been registered according to them 6 our knowledge is not can you give us tomorrow maybe but'll just one second second we want to know now one thing is very clear that the leak has taken place in yes in one Center no with one Center we that's what we have to decide we the fact that the s that the sanctity of the examination compromis is now compromised is beyond doubt that there has been a yes yes I'm I'm sorry now question is Mr solic how widespread is that breach P also the paper leak is not an admitted fact but my learned friend relied upon that PR not kind of a thing we deny the fact that a leak of question complete cover ad biar police on that very day on which the some news reporting came which my learned friend Mr we issued this PR that this is false is not our briefing to the media no but is the case of NTA today that there is no leak ad Mr Mr Kik we take it that it's an admitted fact that there is a leak there is no question about but you know the nature of the leak is what we are determining yes we are asking questions the fact that there was a leakage of question papers is an is is cannot be disputed now what is the consequence of that leag would depend upon the extensive nature of that leag if it Le or uncontained you don't I'll tell you one thing you don't cancel a whole examination merely because two students have committed a malpractice likewise assuming that there is a leak we don't live in an Ideal World there should be no leak but before we decide to order a leak a test we must be we must be we must be careful about what is the nature of that Le because we are conscious of the fact that we are dealing with the careers of 23 L absolutely right abely asking look asking 23 lakh students to reappear for an examination together with the preparation cost travel and dislocation of admission schedules there is Choice unfortunately there is no choice hasak now therefore we want to know this therefore we would like to know first the entire process which Tak place two what is the what is the nature of the fs which have which have come forth when how was the leak what what is the point of time at which the leak took place how was the league disseminated these are important questions and next very important what is the what are the what are the actions what are the actions which the government of India and NTA have taken identify the wrongdoing students or the beneficiaries of the wrongdoing first i' like to make I'd like to make submission I mean 31.9 my Lord e we have understood your L's question they are very pertinent question and that would ultimately lead but I just give one second one second Mr we also want to know what is the what are the steps which have been taken by the NTA and by the government to identify the beneficiaries of the Leakes because that we have to we have to go with we have to be ruthless on identifying the beneficiaries we also have to be ruthless because anybody who has breached the examination not en to be there as a successful those who are identified their results are but give me an example how many we want to know how many have been identified but more than how many have been identified we want to know what was the course of action which was taken by the government kindly allow me to give an example for the time being leave biar I'll call the police also I not take instructions take for example g g incident it passes on as a paper leak case it's not a paper leak case what happened was there was one superintendent of one particular Center called J jar jalaram School his name is Tushar but he arranged with certain students that he didn't have the paper but he said that whatever answers you can confidently answer you give the answers these are multiple choice questions with negative marking and therefore I would have a window of 3 hours before uh after I take your papers back and I seal it and send it to the concern Authority fortunately the authorities the district magistrate came to know about this it must have uh percolated from somewhere therefore the moment examination started the entire District administration and entire police Administration was there the papers after the examination were taken in their custody sealed in their presence and sent and that man was arrested now from his mobile there were several video chats which were found and we could identify that these were the people who with whom he was in touch so those identified students their papers are their results are with and they are issued showa notices why should they not be to know totally con about but concerned about PNA is leakage godra we are not complaining I'm only about paper leak nothing else all of are minor issues issues nobody would ask for no ask for the examination overall in the entire country how many students whose uh whose results have been withheld uh o to what is we are what we are discussing today individual one student cheating from another student we are not bothered about absolutely that the law will take its own course yes how many students are there whose results have been withheld as a result of the systemic uh so we won't say systemic as a result of the leakage leage so and and where are those students situated you want to see the geographical distribution of those students are they in one state are they in multiple states where are they situated and and third now one more thing which we'd like to also dwell on is uh the following Justice the order passed by the bench prided over by honorable J Vikram in the in the vacation 1563 students there was a retest that was held on the 23rd of June or 21st of June 23rd of June it has been now one second one second one second just just tell us for this examination now are we still in the process of identifying the wrong of the wrongdoers in terms of the students we're not talking of those who are perpetrators but beneficiaries have we been able to completely identify the student students who are the beneficiaries or is that process still ongoing answer is no for instance for instance for instance one second for instance look if we have no go if we have no go we'll have to cancel the exam there has been no effort whatsoever on that side as a quot yes this cancellation of a test of this nature 24 L students is a matter is a matter of extreme last we because it may be you know right therefore therefore we asking questions about when was the what was the time at which the leage took place so that will give us an idea of what was the opportunity for dissemination quick answer quick answer if one second one second Mr solicitor Mr one second second one second sir one second just one second everything by after one second one more one more thing I want to ask you is that with the kind of technology which we have today at our disposal and the government of India has it cyber forensic unit is it not possible for us to run through the use of experts to bring some sense of confidence to the process uh that you know you you carry out a detailed uh data analytics exercise to see if there are suspicious markers now we we have to identify what the suspicious markers are all right so I just want to say one thing let us not be in self denial absolutely right the you know self-denial is only adding to the problems because now everybody knows there was a Le so let's not we have two or three things we have to see what happened for this exam what we do in the ongoing process for the conclusion of this year's admission and finally which is the third aspect of the matter which we answer what do we ensure what do we do to ensure that the leak does not take place again in the future or what are the steps we are taken to ensure that you know the dissemination in the future does not result in the leaks that we have uh that we have encountered on the last aspect subject to hearing you there should be a there should be a sort of a multi-disciplinary committee consisting of the best experts not necessarily only from the government but people who have very wide experience and who are respected across the country because we are you know today we are dealing I don't have to emphasize it we are dealing with the most prestigious of educational admissions every middle class which the middle middle class parents aspir the children to go to medicine or engineering or you know now uh what are we doing to ensure that these future that this will not happen in future and how are we planning to tighten the examinations process is there an audit being conducted by the government on what went wrong in the NTA that's one aspect what do we do the there's a third aspect second aspect assuming that we are not going to cancel the entire exam what do we do between today and the date of admissions to identify those who are beneficiaries of the fraud and the first aspect first aspect do we cancel the exam or do we allow the counseling to go through by identifying the benefit iies and on the first aspect we'd like to know from the government what have you done so far to identify those who are beneficiaries of the I can assure you one thing but we are not we are not adversary report to the report to the CB and police that is most important report of the CBI and the P police Mr solicitor you know they have from one second from what they are trying to emphasize we find that they they place a great deal of emphasis on the fact that in the uh 20 21 22 23 you had 1 + 3 + 1 + 2 that is 4 and 1 5 and 2 7 students who got 720 out of 720 in four years this year we have 67 67 who get 720 which not 6 one second we have an answer no no I have one more question question what is the what one second what is the percentile distribution in this exam across categories not just 720 centers no no no the the distribution of marks is it skewed at the top in the last year suppose how many were in the bottom third percentile in the middle third percentile in the top third percentile this year is this year in the sense that will give us an indicator was the was the pattern was it a paper leak was the examination pattern comparatively easier as opposed to the previous years we we done I have given that answer Lord's quy make a subm last pagee the chart I have given that satisfies my Lord's query the marks I have compared given the table somebody in 2022 who obtained 700 marks see this table for a moment that you throw light on my Lord's query uh 222 somebody who obtained 700 Mark yes in 2022 his rank was 94 right in 23 somebody 700 his rank was 247 then somebody has 700 in 2024 his rank is 2,250 he goes down he goes down because there also there is question also there is another aspect one second how many students appeared in 2022 23 and 24 same same T is showing it table is showing it the 56 students that are before number all Stoppers kindly see the difference also I also there is another aspect to it increase in a very linear fashion my Lord there is another aspect to it in fact n has published several answer key my Lord I'd like to point I Lord I'd like to I'd also like to point out um some may I say something submission rest all of them have been meritorious have scored highest Mark in class 10 and 12 in in so far as Gujarat is concerned in 56 people that have come before alot so this is a case where all of us are facing tremendous mental Agony because of this that's what now we can leave Al leave aside the emotions you can what what we want to know Mr what we want to know is this we will have these you know we'll have these anecdotal uh you know charts like this which are given to us then is there please take instructions from the government can we not run this through a data analytics program to the Cyber forensic unit you can contact if the government has that in the ministry of Home Affairs so much the better if you don't have it you can ask any of our top uh service providers to to to find out because we have to identify a whether the you know whether these the skewing of marks is so systemic that the whole examination is affected all or is it possible to identify people who are wrongdoers or likely wrongdoers in which case a retest can be held for those students only I I'd like to make a small but I can assure you about one thing but we are not adversarial to the petitioners either way the petitioners who have an apprehension of an all- India problem or petitioners 23 l in number plus who are feeling insecure because they may have to face another examination but we are concerned about both the sides and we will assist your lotes dispassionately whatever suggested I think the solution lies somewhere else what we' like to do in so far as the petitioners are concerned please all lawyers for the petitioners please will pick it up on Wednesday give them a day time also wanted one day's time we'll give you a day time put your together we want all the lawyers for the petitioners who are asking for a retest who are asking for a retest to sit together between now and Wednesday and give us one set of submission violation we can't have we can't have people you know 100 lawyers arguing before us on 100 different grounds we want you to all sit down we'll appoint one noal Council as we do in the CB matters you give us a one Consolidated submission say not exceeding 10 pages you don't mind it should it shouldn't exceed 10 pages why you for a re all right for that purpose likewise we'll do this we will ask the government to circulate a comprehensive list of dates and a response to what we have uh what we have what we have raised CBI directed not everything is with CBI NTA as we have seen in the reply they say we do not know whether it was systemic or not here sometime they completely deny this so let the CBI file a status report before this honorable Court in all six FS that will place the picture that in which direction the investigation is going filation in between submit a status report me take instruction from appearing for the CBI also Mr CBI file the status why don't you do this ask the C to that's the Le has investigation whether it is systemic or suggestion consider it i' like make a small submission my Lord here also the there is in the only one one request call for the record from the CBI also and because something not public how to place it fors Etc can we can I request this is Joint request that we file everything as suggested by by Wednesday and matter can be heard on Thursday so we are not nobody is taken by surprise that what is the document we'll prepare it today file it by day after and we can have that filteration which happens in between but the investigating officer is the best person no I'm not overall Wednesday he's saying take it up on Thursday will so you will get 24 hours to study what they saying and in the metime if just consider one more the entire result of 2 23 lakh on people we declared on their website they have not declared that result we will also analyze the data because they declared the result of 100 we could see that six people who secured rank one are from the same is De a to see not comprehensiv on the I'd like to make a small submission got thek 720 720 how is it possible this my question is that people one Center in my second question is different result is a different how is it possible ke for same om multiple answer keys for one single person has been published by the NTA on it website opened up on the 8th of April for enlisting students M on a 24-hour window on the 9th and the 10th of April m change of answer also they have changed the answer also this is and then the second question that why the has declared the result the four June my Lord question already my Lord three answer keys for the same set of question paper how can that how can n publish that n also should be investigated are there how many total 10,000 1 lak 10,000 approximate % is government how manyak 18,000 something is the exact figure 56,000 is the government buling is on the government so that they can do private and my Lord I'd like to make a small submission my Lord my lordship it's my humble request data which is come out will important this please come out sheet status my Lord on VC I may be allowed to make a small submission of 30 seconds which is open on the 9th of 9 April sir my lordship the portal is opened on 9th April 2024 it's my humble request please give the clear data to find out so that we can my Lord why the window was open on 8th and 9th was the reason and what was the result because this is the only differ my Lord identified 15 candidate who are something and we we we'll now place it on Thursday we'll just give some direction to the matter so we'll be able to focus on what we want on 9 February 20 24 the national testing agency into brackets NTA issued an online application form for the national eligibility come Entrance Test into brackets neet ug braet 2024 stop NTA conducted the neat ug examination on 5 May 2024 let stop results will declare on on 4th June 2024 next on 5 May 20124 from the material which is emerged on the record at the present stage comma it appears that on 5 May 2024 the first information report wearing F number 358 stroke 2024 was launched at P shastri nagar Patna alleging leak in the neit ug 2024 Miss papers implicating offenses under sections 407 408 and 409 read with section 120b of the code stop on 23 June 2024 the economic offenses unit of Bihar police is issued a press release noting that in connection with the above F 13 persons including candidates and members of and into invert commas members of the organized gang of examin leak sorry I should not interrupt this is what I gave to this is not true that is what the biar police on that very they clar where is that CL I just my friend is wrong Poli no no you trying to cover up this is on that very day published by the Bihar police this is with regard to the news report rep of me ug exam published in the Sunday Express Newspaper dated 23rd June on its front page with the headline Bihar police so this press release is not an official press release no no that's what the be police clarify onbs kindly read it further for he handed this over to me just in the news item the undersigned has been wrongly quoted and the name has been mentioned at least three times in the news item by the corresponden so and so whereas the the matter of fact is that no such brief had been given by the undersign to him in this regard and neither the concern correspondent ever contacted me before attributing the court to the undersign no official press release or statement in this matter had been issued this irresponsible Act of correspond second according to the petitioners on 23 June 2024 a press release was issued by the economic offenses unit ofar police setting out in regard to the paper leak which had taken place the other hand comma from a communication dat 23 June 2024 addressed by the additional DGP economic offenses unit it will been stated that no official press release or statement as an act of had been had been issued by the bear police stop be that as it may Comm in this batch of petitions one of the primary reliefs which has been sought is for what mandated retest the entire process which took place culminating in the examination which was conducted on 5 May 2024 stop in support of the case in support of the of their case the petitioners have relied on primary circumstances first it has been submitted that before that you can just say the neat UGI 2024 examination consisted of multiple choice questions involving a total of 180 questions question s let's stop the each of the 180 questions carried four marks making for a total of 720 marks for the examination 45 marks each were allotted to the segments in physics chemistry chemistry and geology and oology physics chemistry botony and zyy stop the examination andage the award of negative marks of of of one of one negative Mark per wrong answer uh per wrong answer next in support of The Plea that the court should direct area examination the petitioners have relied on two circumstances first it has been submitted that between in in that candidate securing maximum the maximum of 720 marks we can TR to a few students a few between 2020 and 2023 in 2020 full stop as opposed to this in the NIT UGI 2024 as many as 67 candidates are reported to have secured maximum of 720 marks the submission can best be highlighted by reproducing the chart which has been placed the course of the hearing AA comp above chart indicates that while only once that while one student in 2020 on three students in 2021 one student in 2022 and two students in 2023 secured the maximum marks there's been a radical increase in the student securing the maximum of 720 marks in 20124 so apart from the second submission proceeds on a comparative tabulation of the ranks which should be which were allotted to students in 2022 2023 and 2024 for me for me most important the league has happened that uh the second uh the above submission is sought to be highlighted from the following chart above chart indicates that students receiving specific level of marks between 539 and 700 what secured a particular rank in 2022 secured lower ranks in 2023 and a radically lower Mark a radically lower rank in 2024 no no no same marks same level of marks not same student stop next considering weather before that you can say uh it is certain basic facts which are not in dispute need to be alluded to about 24 lakh students registered for the neat ug examination which is to be conducted in the month of May 2024 stop about 23.33% students appeared for the examination the examination was conducted at 4750 Center comprised within 571 cities stop the examination was also held in 14 cities overseas stop the total number of seats medical seats for undergraduate one second I've made a note for undergraduate studies uh is 1.08 lakhs of which approximately 56,000 are seats in government hospitals good stop the investigation P from tentatively at the present stage the court has been apprised of the fact and the don't say tentatively the court has been apprised of the fact that first information reports were registered in Patna Gujarat Rajasthan jarand and Maharashtra correct stop uh whether the the uh whether the uh whether the uh FES in relation to the paper leag is only confined to yes or otherwise is a matter which would have to be reserved for a more detailed elaboration detailed consideration stop the above narration indicates that the examination was conducted over a wide spectrum comprising of nearly 23 lak students spread over 4,750 centers in India good stuff before the court can be full stop uh the law on weather a retest should be ordered in a situation such as the present is based on fairly settled parameters let the court would have to scrutinize on the basis of the data which has emerged on the record whether po Rec one breach in the sanctity of the examination has taken place whether bracket one the alleged breach has taken place at a system at a systemic level or at a systemic level semicolon braet two whether the breach is of a nature which has affected the Integrity of the exam of the entire examinations process and three whether it is possible to segregate beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students stop in a situation where the reach in the sanctity of an examination affects the entirety of the process and it is it is not possible to segregate those who are the beneficiaries of wrongdoing from others comma it may be necessary to order re examination on the other contrary wise where the bre is confined to specific areas or centers and it is possible to identify those who are beneficiaries of wrongdoing it may not be appropriate to order a retest particularly in an examination which has been conducted on such a massive scale involving over 23 lakh students involving such a large body of students who would haveed who who have studied for the examination undertaken costs and expenses and would have to undergo the rigors of a fresh examination if it were to be ordered by the court next while flagging these issues while flagging the above issues comma we are of the view that view on the merits would have to be deferred until further facts are replaced on the record before this court One Stop the we for that purpose we intend to direct the national testing agency to make a full disclosure uh before the court stop the disclosure which we are intending to require can broadly be classified into three aspects the first aspect pertains to the nature of the leak places where the leak took place and the lag of time between the occurrence of the leak and the conduct of the examination and this on on from this perspective comma NTA must nth has directed to clarify on the basis of the material which is in its possession as of date on the following issues record one when the leak of the question papers has first taken place to the manner in which the question papers were leaked or disseminated braet three the duration between the time duration between the occurrence of the leak and the actual of the examination which took place at 2 p.m. between 2: p.m. and 5:20 p.m. on 5 May 2024 uh the second uh uh while while making the uh full stop uh on the above aspect comma we are also of the view that since the investigation has been interested to the CBI comma the status report should be filed by the investigating officer before this courot indicating the status of the the state indicating the the status of the investigation up to date and the material which has come to light during the course of the investigation one one may uh one may when the leak first was first noticed was first notice the investigating officer shall in particular indicate to this court shall shall place before this court material which has been gathered during the course of the investigation which would have a bearing on when the leak is alleged to have first taken place in the modalities in which the leak question papers were made available stop uh on the second the second perspective the second aspect on which we NTA shall make a disclos of this scod is in regard to the steps which have been taken so far for identification of the beneficiaries of the link the court would be apprised deria of the following bracket one how many students what were the steps which were taken by NTA to identify the centers stroke cities at which the leak took place to modalities followed or identifying the beneficiaries of the leak and three the number of students who have so far been identified to be the beneficiaries of the leaked question papers likewise the investigating officer say trck Authority because identification will not be within hour all right uh the above information I I'll clarify while editing I'll put it so that it will be more the ministry of Home Affairs or some other the link will be at one place at how many centers the leak paper has been made available because leak will be in the entire at one no no we have said we have said the dissemination also we have said the uh investigating officer shall also submit a status report uh bearing on the above aspects yes well third the third aspect uh on which uh it is necessary to have a further Disclosure by the union government as well as by n we say Union government and N is whether it is possible by the union government and N is whether to be is is on we uh technically feasible whether it would be feasible using the uh using data analytics either within the Cyber forensic unit or any other expert agencies within or which may be employed by the government to identify cases where uh suspect cases would stop for instance these cases may involve uh full stop uh this may be uh if this is possible comma the authori shall uh identify before the court uh the identify the modalities which can be followed uh so as to segregate the tainted from the untainted ed students the third aspect on which uh we would require a disclosure uh is in regard to the modalities to be followed uh between the conclusion of the examination including the retest which was held for 1563 students and the actual commencement of the counseling process what stop if uh an exercise is to be conducted by the NTA and by the union government so as to reduce any further beneficiaries of the question paper leakage a considered decision at the policy level would have to be taken by the government on whether counc in should be allowed to proceed in the meantime or otherwise not say that on the status of the counsel fourthly the court is concerned about the steps which should be taken Hereafter uh to ensure the sanctity of the uh of the uh National eligibility come Entrance Test so that such instances which have transpired during the course of the present session are not repeated in the future just one second please in this regard it would be necessary for the government to consider setting up uh a multidisiplinary team consisting of uh renowned experts command The Wider confidence of the community to ensure that due measures are being taken to new measures are being taken to obate any further reaches in the need in the future let stop uh if a committee has already been set up by the government for the for for deducing the steps to be taken for the future full details shall be made available to the court stop the court May then consider whether the committee which has been constituted by the government should be allowed to proceed as it is whether the composition of the committee should be uh should be should be uh should be to bring so as to bring together a pool of talent from diverse Fields bearing not only on Administration but also on domain expert and data analytics and Mr Kosik Lear Council appearing solicitor general appearing for the union of India and Mr K mros Lear sen Council appearing for the NTA have requested the court to B the further hearing on Thursday C so as to enable them to make their uh to file the do file the material in persons of the above uh queries by 5: p.m. on Wednesday full stop the uh the affidavit the the affidavit shall be shared with Council appearing on the on behalf of the petitioners simultaneously the report of the investigating officer of the CBI shall also be placed on the record in the meantime may I only to say one aspect you know I'll tell you why let there be the reason why we asking for this disclosure whatever view we ultimately take Let There Be confidence in the community that absolutely in view of the large number of council who are appearing on the side of the petitioners we have requested that we it has been agreed who will be the noal council independently sometime shall act as noal Council all the council for the petitioners who are desirous of pressing their submission for a test shall file a common set of submissions not exceeding 10 pages by uh uh by before the next before the hearing takes place on Thursday allow thetion on this side can also supported by the I appreciate but I also want to get out the fact are all cases where why don't you do this why don't you do this give us a short onepage note that will be more very whereever your lordship said petitioners there are transfer petitions where we are essentially respondents and this is beyond the leak my Lord beyond the leak also yes my Lord there is also change the answer also they change answer one question and the number yes Lord in fact it's happen in my case also where there are three we have not we have not specifically in our order including the red flags you iately put it into our order but you can just see whether there are some cases like that which you can identify see so that then uh we have like toer perhaps they are not given copies the other ones who are intervening or Etc what we would suggest is what you give us on Thursday you and one more thing what you give us on Thursday make it comprehensive so that we don't have to wait through your counters and everything we just okay look at that basically make one small request we if we can if we can using whatever technology uh common sense and our understanding of the law identify the wrongdoing students we then don't have to ask 20 L students to again appear for the exam if we have no other go of course we there to allow the implment applications for us to file that one page our diary number to be recorded is that matter neat matter right yes there are three other matters which we have to take our Diary Number made not all right any other fresh matters on neat which were not on board yes after you can give the matters numbers to the court Master he bring them on board the one more thing Mr solic has everybody served their petitions on thec but we have not not all right one second the council appearing for all the petitioners stroke Council appearing for all the petitioners stroke interveners Shall Serve copies on whom should we say Central MK Mar on on MK marua and Mr and Mr vaman Kosik Council appearing Council instructing the solicit general and Mr Kosik RC Kosik respectively uh the uh the two Council appearing on behalf of the uh rep the two Council Mr Maria and Mr the union of India and the NTA shall prepare a tabulated statement uh indicating for each petition tabulated statement grouping the petitions into distinct categories so as to facilitate disposal so what you can do is those which are which are which which are asking for a retest you can put in one category then individual uh grievances then we'll see what whether those grievances can be entertained whether we ask you to look into it what to do but we'll have one tabulated chart on EAS just request one Indulgence that's why we said therefore you serve a copy on the they have changed answer also they have answer and given more 1,000 student problem for ranking is concerned but look this is nothing therefore those petitions you may have to dealing they are individual petitions those are individual petitions where you say you have a medical condition you should have been given extra time we'll deal with it separately it does not deal with the sanctity of the examination that's individual students order should not be deemed to be as restricting only to the case of leak because between the not at all in fact that's why we finally said this for the reason my Lord on the 8th while the exam was announced for the fifth my lords of May on the 8th of April overnight my lords they brought about a notification that there will be a window open for students who could not register for the exam way back in 16th of March so this window that they opened by is absolutely difficult to understand so more students registered 25,000 an item for one second of look more students registering Etc how can we suspect because the initial advertisement hear you we'll hear you on that we hear you the entire result the entire comprehensive result should be put on the website right now what's happening is individual results only are put up so somebody has to go so we can't Mr Kik Mr Kosik the entire result except for those which you have we will say that these result shall not give any give rise to any equities or legal rights but you must at least now appr the result yes the entire results comprehensive the data science can work here the revised result of 1563 and the rest of the persons all has been uploaded on 30th no no individually individually but do you have so that is why we can't use data science that's the problem if they they are deliberately keeping under WS this would your L may take a call on that on Thursday but there is something also looked at they found it as a matter of fact that it was being the sold question paper was received by this gang on mobile phone on the morning of 5th of May where do we get that yes it is it is there let me let me come back to at page 292 of my second paragraph uh uh yes this this second paragraph at page 292 allow me to read that let says it was received on mobile phone by this gang when were they received uh they here they say 5th of May 2024 in the morning and the students were made in groups were made to memorize the answers to these questions this is what the finding is as a matter of fact we have a video which was shown to me it's a uh telegram uh Channel uh Channel where uh it has been recorded which is on 4th of May the question paper and answers were being circulated on a telegram Channel this has been captured the date and the telegram Channel we have and the questions have been messed the same question when were the question papers uh lodged in the locker what they will be able to tell me when were the question papers sent to the locker five six days prior to the specific date specific date and second when were they pulled out of the locker two lockers right State Bank of India and can Bank bank now when were they pulled out to the locker on the date of the exam that is on 5th minutes not only the date which is relevant the time refence what time was the examination held 5th minutes what time was it 2 in the after 2:00 2:00 to 520 3 hours 20 minutes now what what time were they pulled out of the Locker on the fifth around minutes 10:30 11:00 now at how many centers in India were the was the exam conducted in India 4,75 minutes 4,750 Center how many right how many cities now please give us specific 571 and 15 centers were abroad minutes 571 cities yes and how many centers abroad 14 minutes 14 cities 14 cities centers B now tell us uh how many students appeared totally 24 lakhs around minutes around 24 minutes you have the precise figure 23 lakh I'll give you 23 lakh 33297 he against registration of 24 lakhs and plus 72,000 students M did not take the exam spite registration now uh how were the papers was distributed abroad they were sent and when were they sent abroad the embassies through the embassies and how are they sent to the embassies get the details were they sent by The Diplomatic bag was it sent by Courier I'll find out and on record and second if the uh now they were the the the the exam was held in as many as 4,750 centers yes ma'am in 571 cities yes ma'am right yes ma'am now uh when you say that the two booklets we'll call them yes A and B set a and set B yes uh they were sent to these cities when were they sent to these cities yes when were they sent to these imely about tell us the precise dates I'll get the exact dates when were they and how were they sent to those cities yes I'll get details bear police and was and were they lodged in the State Bank and Canada Bank in each of these cities or what happened each of the Cities they are lodged with the custodians who are M KRA bank and State Bank so we want to know on what date were the question papers sent where were they when were they when the question papers were prepared yes right question papers are prepared by one person or more than one person group of experts question papers are prepared at the headquarters where are the headquarters Delhi in Delhi so two sets are prepared by two different groups or one group the same one second one second the same group of experts there two different sets of question at the headquarters yes after they prepared they given to the NTA yes right now tell us tell us when when did the group of persons conduct the prepare the question papers and give you the question papers I I'll get the date right we want to know what was the date on which these question papers were prepared and given to you point one yes after they were received by NTA in what custody they were preserved when did NTA send them to the State Bank of India and can Bank different cities in between printing is there printing presses sent to the printing press which is a printing press yes we will get the details we want to know which is the printing press yes when did you send these question papers to the printing press yes ma what were the transportation arrangements made for sending them to the printing press yes when did the printing press after the printing press them we now talking of 23 we 24 lakhs 50 lakh sets yes right because 24 lakh how many sets were printed correct and after they were printed where were they sent are they sent back to the headquarters at Delhi yes please huh the the remaining sheets unutilized ones no no after the question paper is set it is sent for printing yes you have a printing press a yes you need not tell us where the printing press is otherwise next year there'll be they will go to that now it is sent to that printing press yes right how is it sent to the printing press under what custody yes second after they are printed how do the printing how do the printing press send it back to NTA between that date and give us that date how many days had elapsed between that and the distribution of the question question papers to these 471 cities and 4750 centers entire movement PL I'll prepare a track starting from the preparation of the uh question paper see I tell you why we are asking I if we come to the conclusion that the time lag between the leak and the actual date of the examination is relatively limited yes then that would be a circumstance which would militate against holding a retest not if the time lag between the leak and the actual examination brother Mish actually men is is wider then there's a greater chance that the Malay is across the system I get it I'll get if if it appears that the question paper ERS were leaked on the morning of the 5th exam was scheduled at 2:00 students were made to memorize the questions that may be one indicator that the leak was not as widespread somebody who has the question paper is not going to ask students to sit down and memorize them and give on the spot memorize them how many answers can a student memorize there are two aspects to therefore we we have to have some clarity on facts for us to understand whether this is so systemic that we must order a see there are two or three considerations which weigh one if the if the sanctity of the examination has been lost then a retest has to be ordered right yeah if we are not able to identify students who are candidates who are guilty of wrongdoing a r test has to be ordered if you can't distinguish the grain from the Sha that is a tainted from the untainted a test has to be ordered the Lord Jud on the other hand right on the other hand on the other hand we are dealing with now a situation of 23 lakh students it may be farfetch for us to at least presume unless they point out material to us that all 23 lakh students or a substantial number of them are involved in the fraud for what we know a large number of students maybe just honest students who have appeared for the exam large we have to but we have to see we have to see if you know second what was the modality one more very important aspect what was the modality in which the leak was detected if sorry if the leak took place if the modality of the leak is through electronic means social media then there is a possibility the leak is extremely that is the point said is all correct Med you know lagging these issues we want you to therefore give us a comprehensive analysis of dates certainly because if the leak is taking place through say telegram if it is taken through WhatsApp that happen you know because if it's through social media or any electronic means of communication like wildfire on the other hand uh we must also balance it out about the time at which the leak takes place if it's more or less in the morning of the 5th then the time between when the leak takes place and the students have to go for the examination very limited watch on the is a hard decision one more thing in which we require some assistance from both Sid please don't treat it as an adversary litigation the reason for the reason the re one second for the reason that whatever view we ultimately take this view is impacting the lives of 20 second right second second we want to understand is it possible for the court to identify red flags right so can we identify either we do it or we appoint an expert committee to identify the red flags I'll give you some examples of red flags 720 out of 720 all right every everybody out of who get 720 is not a fraud ster there may be still people who are extraordinarily bright that 720 out of 720 but we found that for the previous years the proportion was very low now this year suddenly it goes up to 67 how many out of those 720 are people from that 1563 who are beneficiaries of the added Grace Mark we have given the details in our count 81 places no we just want you to now put it down on a piece of paper for us uh second second we want to understand this so a change in a change in centers is possible Right a change in centers is possible POS suppose a student I was just telling my brothers at lunch suppose a student is registered at lnno suddenly you find that student has gone from lnno to a distant Center and gets very and gets the 720 suppose somebody is registered at Amad and suddenly goes to a fairly dist so that may be one that may be one example consider yes so we can you know we will have to do some if we have to share separate the grain from the sha we will have to identify certain red flags that those who fall in that red flag category we may have to then hold a limited retest for that category alone second is it possible to do using the Cyber forensic unit of say the uh Ministry of Home Affairs or whatever is it possible to do a data analytics on the on the entire result and to identify now there may be one category I was thinking you know when we were reflecting on this matter students who get exceptionally High marks in the in the need but whose performance is noted in the 12th but there again but there again I'll tell you one thing one second there again there is a there's a problem students don't study as hard for the 12th as they study for the only one one figure another another red flag another red flag red flag a student get exceptionally marks in one in one one faculty of science like say physics or chemistry but gets five marks in the others so you know because it may be unlikely that a student who is doing so brilliantly in one would not have studied at at all for the other faculty so the only point is that you know I'm not sure whether we should be doing this or whether these but they have not declared the entire result also as brother does is does the full marks have a pattern we also I wanted to answer that we also want to understand we also want to understand the the pattern of neat itself well the pattern quickly only 45 questions on physics 45 questions on chemistry 45 on zoology and botony to totally 180 four marks so 45 questions on physics 45 on chemistry 45 on math on botney and 45 on zoology so 45 * 4 that is 180 180 into 4 720 right if you if you get a wrong answer minus one so therefore if you had uh given 179 right uh right answers your score would have been 720 minus 5 that is 715 here there have been answers uh scores of 718 79 mathematically impossible because you lose four answer was that it is because of the grace marks to retest give me two minutes give me two minutes submission something just some figures which are handy and that might answer I'm oblig your's question it's a very pertinent question we examine the pattern of 100 top ranking students those who were in the first 100 but the analysis comes that they were distributed amongst 95 centers in 56 cities in 18 states or union territories the the top 100 the top 100 huh they are found they appeared in 95 Centers located in 56 City which are spread out in 18 states or Union and my Lord one second one second now page 86 of my reply page 37 is the one more thing which we want to know now is that how many F have been matter has been handed over to C for investigation I I'll just tell you totally how many FS have been registered one F paper leak in p r Malone are FS for some local Mal practice how many totally FS have been registered according to them 6 my our knowledge is not 6 can you give us tomorrow but'll I tell you second we want to know now one thing is very clear that the leak has taken place in yes in one Center no with one Center we that's what we have to decide we the fact that the that the sanctity of the examination compromis is now compromised is beyond doubt that there has been a yes yes I'm I'm sorry now question is Mr solicor how widespread is that also paper leak is not an admitted fact but my learned friend relied upon that press not kind of a thing no an ad but can we deny the fact that a leak of question yes complete complete cover it biar police on that very day on which the some news reporting came my learned friend Mr we issued this PR that this is false this not our briefing to the media no but is the case of NTA today that there is no leak ad Mr we take it that it's an admitted fact that there is a leak there is no question about it but what you know the nature of the leak is what we are determining yes we are asking questions the fact that there was a leakage of question papers is an is is cannot be disputed now what is the consequence of the Le would depend upon the extensive nature of that leag if it Le or uncontained you don't I'll tell you one thing you don't cancel a whole examination merely because two students have committed a malpractice likewise assuming that there is a leak we don't live in an Ideal World there should be no leak but before we decide to order a leak a r test we must be we must be we must be careful about what is the nature of that leak because we are conscious of the fact that we are dealing with the careers of 23 absolutely right abolutely asking look asking 23 lakh students to reappear for an examination together with the preparation cost travel and dislocation of ad Mission schedules there is Choice unfortunately there is no other choice has been leaked now now therefore we want to know this therefore we would like to know first the entire process which to what is the what is the nature of the fs which have which have come forth when how was the leak what what is the point of time at which the leak took place how was the leak disseminated these are important questions me and next very important what is the what are the what are the actions what are the actions which the government of India and NTA have taken identify the wrongdoing students or the beneficiaries of the wrong first I'd like to make I'd like to make submission I I'm inan 31.9 my Lord we have understood lot's question they very pertinent question and that would ultimately lead but I one one one second Mr Sol we also want to know what is the what are the steps which have been taken by the NTA and by the government to identify the beneficiaries of the leaks because that we have to we have to go with we have to be ruthless on identifying the beneficiaries we also have to be ruthless right because anybody who has breached the exam is not to be there as a those who are identified their results are but give me how many we want to know how many have been identified but more than how many have been identified we want to know what was the course of action which was taken by the government kindly allow me to give an example for the time being leave biar I'll call the police also I'll take instructions take for example gdra gdra inent it passes on as a paper leak case it's not a leak Cas what happened was there was one superintendent of one particular Center called J J jalaram school is his name is Tushar B but he arranged with certain students that he didn't have the paper but he said that whatever answers you can confidently answer you give the answers these are multiple choice questions with negative marking and therefore I would have a window of 3 hours before after I take your papers back and I se it and send it to the concern Authority fortunately the authorities the district magistrate came to know about this it must have percolated from somewhere therefore the moment examination started the entire District administration and entire police Administration was there the papers after the examination were taken in their custody sealed in their presence and sent and that man was arrested now from his mobile there were several video chats which were found and we could identify that these were the people who with whom he was in touch so those identified students their papers are results are with and they are issued show notices why should they not be want to know totally concerned about partna partna is leakage we are not complaining I'm only about paper leakage nothing else all of are minor issues Min issues nobody would ask for nobody would ask for the examination overall in the entire country how many students whose uh whose results have been withheld uh owing to what is we are what we are discussing today individual one student cheating from another student we are not bothered about absolutely that the law will take it own call yes how many students are there whose results have been withheld as a result of the systemic uh so we won't say systemic as a result of the leakage so and and where are those students situated you want to see the geographical distribution of those students are they in one state are they in multiple states where are they situated and and third now one more thing which we'd like to also dwell on is uh the following Justice the order passed by the bench prided over by honorable J Vikram in the in the vacation 1563 students there was a retest that was held on the 23rd of June or 21st of June 23rd of June it has been one second one second one second just just tell us for this examination now are we still in the process of identifying the wrong of the wrongdoers in terms of the students we're not talking of those who are perpetrators but beneficiaries have we been able to completely identify the students who are the beneficiaries or is that process still ongoing answer is no for inst for instance for instance for instance one second for instance look if we have no go if we have no go we'll have to cancel the exam there has been no effort whatever on that side as a quote yes this cancellation of a test of this nature 24 lakh students completely agree with is a matter is a matter of extreme last because it may be you know this therefore therefore we asking questions about when was the what was the time at which the leage took place so that will give us an idea of what was the opportunity for dissemination the modality are 56 quick answer quick answer if just one second one second Mr solicitor Mr solicitor one second second one second sir one second just one second everything by one second one more one more thing I want to ask you is that with the kind of technology which we have today at our disposal and the government of India has it cyber forensic unit is it not possible for us to run through the use of experts to bring some sense of confidence to the process uh that you know you you carry out a detailed uh data analytics exercise to see if there are suspicious markers now we have to identify what the suspicious markers are all right so I just want to say one thing let us not be in self-denial absolutely right the you know self-denial is only adding to the problems because now everybody knows there was a Le so let's not we have two or three things we have to see what happened for this exam what we do in the ongoing process for the conclusion of this year's admission and finally which is the third aspect of the matter which we'll answer what do we ensure what do we do to ensure that the leak does not take place again in the future or what are the steps we are taken to ensure that you know the dissemination in the future does not result in the leaks that we have uh that we have encountered on the last aspect subject we hearing you there should be a there should be a sort of a multidisciplinary committee consisting of the best experts not necessarily only from the government but people who have very wide experience and who are respected across the country because we are you know today we are dealing I don't have to emphasize it we are dealing with the most prestigious of educational admissions every middle class which the every middle middle class parents aspires the children to go to this nor engineering or you know now uh what are we doing to ensure that these that this will not happen in future and how are we planning to tighten the examinations process is there an audit being conducted by the government on what went wrong in the N that's one aspect what do we do the there a third aspect second aspect assuming that we are not going to cancel the entire exam what do we do between today and the date of admissions to identify those who are beneficiaries of the fraud and the first aspect first aspect do we cancel the exam or do we allow the counseling to go through by identifying the beneficiaries and on the first aspect we'd like to know from the government what have you done so far to identify those who are beneficiaries of the I can assure you lot one thing but we are not we are not adversary report of the report of the CB police that is most important report of the CBI and the partner police Mr solicitor you know they have from one second from what they are trying to emphasize we find that they they plac a great deal of emphasis on the fact that in the uh 2021 2223 you had 1 + 3 + 1 + 2 that is 4 and 1 5 and2 7 students who got 720 of 720 in four years this year we have 67 67 who get 720 which will not 6 one one second we have an answer no no I have one more question what is the what one second what is the percentile distribution in this exam across categories not just 720 centers no no no that the distribution of marks is it skewed at the top H in the last years suppose how many were in the bottom third percentile in the middle third percentile in the top third percentile this year is this year in the sense that will give us an indicator was the was the pattern was it a paper leak was the examination pattern comparatively easier as opposed to the previous years we have corre we have done the it I have given that answer last page note the chart I have given that satisfies my Lord's query the marks I have compar given the table somebody in 2022 who obtained 700 marks see this table for a moment that will throw light on my Lord's quy uh 222 somebody who obtained 700 marks yes in 2022 his rank was 94 right in 23 somebody 700 his rank was 24 7 then somebody has 700 in 2024 his rank is 2,250 he goes down he goes down because there also there is question also there is another aspect one second how many students appeared in 2022 23 and 24 same same same table is showing table is showing it the 56 students that are before total number all of them Stoppers kindly see the difference I also there is another aspect to it increase in a very linear fashion my Lord there is another aspect in fact NTA has published several answer key my Lord I'd like to point I'd like to I'd also like to point out um some may I say something submission rest all of them have been meritorious have scored highest Mark in class 10 and 12 in in so far as Gujarat is concerned in this 56 people that have come before alot so this is a case where all of us are facing tremendous mental Agony because of this that's all now we can leave Al leave aside the emotions you can what what we want to know Mr what we want to know is this we will have these you know we'll have these anecdotal uh you know charts like this which are given to us then is there please take instructions from the government can we not run this through a data analytics program with the Cyber forensic unit you can contact if the government has that in the ministry of Home Affairs so much the better if you don't have it you can ask any of our top uh service providers to to to find out because we have to identify a whether the you know whether these the skewing of marks is so systemic that the whole examination is affected or is it possible to identify people who are wrongdoers or likely wrongdoers in which case a retest can be held for those students only I I'd like to make a small submiss way but I can assure you about one thing but we are not adversarial to the petitioners either way the petitioners who have an apprehension of an all India problem or petitioners 23 LS in number plus who are feeling insecure because they may have to face another examination but we are concerned about both the sides and we will assist your L dispassionately then whatever suggested but I think the solution lies somewhere else what we'd like to do in so far as the petitioners are concerned all lawyers for the petitioners please we'll take it up on Wednesday give them a day time also wanted one day's time we'll give you a day's time to put your together we want all the lawyers for the petitioners who are asking for a retest who are asking for a retest to sit together between now and Wednesday and give us one set of submissions viation we can't have we can't have people you know 100 lawyers arguing before us on 100 different grounds we want you to all sit down we'll appoint one nodal Council as we do in the CB matters that's right you give us a one Consolidated submission say not exceeding 10 pages you don't mind it should it shouldn't exceed 10 pages why youing for a rep right for that purpose likewise we'll do this we will ask the government to circulate a comprehensive list of dates and a response to what we have uh what we have what we have raised direct everything is with CBI NTA as we have seen in the reply they say we do not know whether it was systemic or not here sometime they completely deny this so let the CBI file a status report before this honorable Court in all six FS that will place the picture that in which direction the investigation is going not all six filation in between subm a status report take instruction from for the CBI CBI file the status why don't you do this ask C to file that's the Le has Min on Investigation whether it is or suggestion consider it I'd like to make a small submission my Lord here also in the me only one one request call for the record from the CBI also and because something public how to place it before Etc can we can I request is our joint request that we file everything as suggested by L by Wednesday and matter can be heard on Thursday so we are not nobody is taken by surprise that what is the document we'll prepare it today file it by day after and we can have that filteration which happens in between but the investigating officer is the best person I'm not overall he's saying take it up on Thursday they will so you will get 24 hours to study what they are saying and in the metime if consider one more the entire result of 2 23 L people declared on their website they have not declared that result we will also analyze the data because they declared the result of 100 we could see that six people who secured rank one are from the same Center is De be able to see not comprehensiv on the I'd like to make a small submission you made your point got the same Mark 720 and 720 720 how is it possible my question thater in my second question all different different how is it possible answer keys for the same om multiple for one single has been published by the NTA on it website opened up on the 8th of April for enlisting students my on a 24-hour window on the 9th and the 10th of April my and change of answer also they have changed the answer also this is and then the second question that why the has declared the result the four June my Lord question already my Lord three answer keys for a set of question paper how can that how can n publish that n also should be investigated there how many total 1,000 1 L 10,000 approximate % is government how many uh lak 18,000 something is the exact figure 56,000 is the government buling is on the government so that they can do pr one my my Lord I'd like to make a small submission my Lord my lordship it's my humble dat which is come out will important please comeet status my Lord on VC I may be allowed to make a small submission of 30 seconds which is open on the 9th ofil sir my lordship the portal is opened on 9th April 2024 it's my humble request please give the clear data to find out so that we can my Lord why the window was open on 8th and N the reason days what was the result because this is the only difference my Lord identified 15 candidate who are we we we'll now place it on Thursday we'll just give some direction to the matter so we'll be able to focus on what on 9 February 20 24 the national testing agency into brackets NTA issued an online application form for the national eligibility come Entrance Test into brackets neet UGI braet 2024 stop NT conducted the neat ug examination on 5 May 2024 let's stop results will declare on on 4th June 2024 next on May 2024 from the material which is emerged on the record at the present stage comma it appears that on 5 May 2024 the first information report wearing fi number 358 stroke 2024 was launched at P shastri nagar Patna alleging a leak in the neat ug 2024 question papers implicating offenses under sections 407 408 and 409 read with section 120b of the Cod St on 23 June 2024 the economic offenses unit of Bihar police issued a press release noting that in connection with the above F 13 persons including candidates and members of and into invert commas members of the organized gang of examination leak sorry I should not interrupt this is what I gave to a LS this is not uh true that is what the Bihar police on that very de CL where is that de CL I had just my friend wrong what police CL no no you trying to cover up this is on that very day published by the Bihar police this is with regard to the news report of NE ug exam published in the Sunday Express Newspaper dated 23rd June on its front page with the headline Bihar police put this press release is not an official press release no no that's what the be police clarify on the website kindly read it further for he handed this over to me just in the news item the has been wrongly quoted and the name has been mentioned at least three times in the news item by the correspondence so and so whereas the matter of fact is that no such brief had been given by the undersign to him in this regard and neither the concern correspondent ever contacted me before attributing the code to the undersigned no official press release or statement in this matter had been issued this irresponsible Act of Cor second according to the petitioners on 23 June 2024 a press release was issued by the economic offenses unit of biar police setting out in regard to the uh paper leak which had taken place the hand comma from a communication dat 23 June 2024 addressed by the additional DGP economic offenses unit has been stated that no official press release or statement as an act of had been had been issued by the Bihar police stop be that as it may Comm in this batch of petitions one of the primary reliefs which has been sought is for a court mandated retest the entire process which took place culminating in the examination which was conducted on 5 May 2024 stop in support of the case in support of the of their case the petitioners have relied on primary circumstances first it has been submitted that before that you can just say the neat UGI 2024 examination consisted of multiple choice questions involving a total of 180 questions let's stop the each of the 180 questions carried four marks making for a total of 720 marks for the examination 45 marks each were allotted to the segments in physics chemistry chemistry biolog geology andology physics chemistry botony and zoology the examination in this age the award of negative marks of of of one of one negative Mark per wrong answer uh wrong next in support of The Plea that the court should direct a reexamination the petitioners have primarily relied on two circumstances first it has been submitted that between in in that candidate securing maximum the maximum of 720 monks we're confined to a few students if you between 2020 and 2023 in 2020 full stop as opposed to this in the NIT UI 2024 as many as 67 candidates are reported to have secured maximum of 720 marks the submission can best be highlighted by reproducing the chart which is been placed the of the hearing AA above chart indicates that while only one that while one student in 2020 on three students in 2021 one student in 2022 and two students in 2023 secured the maximum marks there's been a radical increase in the student securing the maximum of 720 marks in 2024 apart from the second submission proceeds on a comparative tabulation of the ranks which would be which were allotted to students in 2022 2023 and 2024 for me for me most important the league has happened that is the call the second uh the above submission is sought to be highlighted from the following abated chart above chart indicates that students receiving specific level of marks between 539 and 700 would secured a particular rank in 2022 secured lower ranks in 2023 and a radically lower Mark a radically lower rank in 2024 no no no same marks same level of marks not same student stop next considering weather before that you can say uh it is certain basic facts which are not in dispute need to be alluded to stop about 24 lakh students registered for the neat ug examination which was to be conducted in the month of May 2024 stop about 2333 lakh students correct yes sir appeared for the 23 lakh 33297 students 23 lakh 23,29 students 297 students appeared for the examination the examination was conducted at 4750 centers comprised within 571 cities stop the examination was also held in 14 cities overseas stop the total number of seats medical seats for undergraduate one second I've made a note for undergraduate studies uh is 1.08 lakhs of which approximately 56,000 are seats in government hospitals good stop the investigation Prim from tentatively at the present stage the court has been arised of the fact that the don't say tentatively the court has been apprised of the fact that first information reports were registered in Patna heli Gujarat Rajasthan jarand and Maharashtra correct good stop uh whether the uh whether the uh whether the uh files in relation to the paper league is only confined to yes or otherwise is a matter which would have to be reserved for a more detailed elaboration detailed consideration on stop the above narration indicates that the examination was conducted over a wide spectrum in prising of nearly 2 three lakh students spread over 4750 centers in India good Stu before the court can be full stop uh the law on weather a retest should be ordered in a situation such as the present is based on fairly settled parameters the Cod would have to scrutinize on the basis of the data which has emerged on the record whether colonet one breach in the sanctity of the examination has taken place WEA bracket one the alleged breach has taken place at a system at a systemic level or at a systemic level semicolon braet 2 whether the breach is of a nature which has affected the Integrity of the exam of the entire examinations process and three whether it is possible to segregate beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students stop in a situation where the reach in the sanctity of an examination affects the entirety of the process and it is it is not possible to segregate those who are the beneficiaries of wrongdoing from others comma it may be necessary to order any examination on the other contrary wise where the bre is confined to specific areas of centers and it is possible to identify those who are beneficiaries of wrongdoing it may not be appropriate to order a retest particularly in an examination which has been conducted on such a massive scale involving over 23 lakh students involving such a large body of students who would have who who have studied for the examination undertaken costs and expenses and would have to undergo the rigur of a fresh examination if it were to be ordered by the court next while flagging these issues while flagging the above issues comma we are of the view that view on the merits would have to be deferred until further facts are placed on the record before this court One Stop the we for that purpose we intend to direct the national testing agency to make a full disclosure uh before the court stop the disclosure which we are intending to require can broadly be classified into three aspects the first aspect pertains to the nature of the leak places where the leak took place and the lag of time between the occurrence of the leak and the conduct of the examination on this on on from this perspective comma NTA must nth has directed to clarify on the basis of the material which is in its possession as ofd on following issues record one when the leak of the question papers has first taken place through the manner in which the question papers were leaked or disseminated semicolon braet 3 the duration between the time duration between the occurrence of the leak and the actual conduct of the examination which took place at 2 p.m. between 2 p.m. and 5:20 p.m. on 5 May 2024 uh the second uh uh while while making the uh full stop uh on the above aspect comma we are also of the view that since the investigation has been interested to the CBI comma the status report should be filed by the investigating officer before this quote indicating the status of the the state indicating the the status of the investigation up to date in the material which has come to light during the course of the investigation one one may uh one may when the leak first was first noticed was first noticed the investigating officer shall in particular indicate to this court shall shall place before this court material which has been gathered during the course of the investigation which should have a bearing on when the leak is alleged to have first taken place in the modalities in which the leite question papers were made available stop uh on the second the second perspective the second aspect on which we NTA shall make a disclosure of this C is in regard to the steps which have been taken so far for identification of the beneficiaries of the leag this regard the court would be apprised theia of the following bracket one how many students what were the steps which were taken by NTA to identify the centers stroke cities at which the leak took place to modalities followed or identifying the beneficiaries of the leak and three the number of students who have so far been ID identified to be the beneficiaries of the leaked question papers likewise the investigating officer TR Authority because identification may not be within hour all right uh the above information I I'll clarify while editing I'll put it so that it will be more the ministry of Home Affairs or some other the link will be at one place that how many centers the leak paper has been made available because leak will be in the entire Sy at one point no no we have said we have said the dissemination also we the uh investigating officer shall also submit a status report uh bearing on the above aspects yes well third the third aspect uh on which uh it is necessary to have a further Disclosure by the unit government as well as by n we say Union government and N is whether it is possible by the union government and N is whether would be is on whether uh technically feasible yeah whether it would be feasible using the uh using data analytics either within the Cyber forensic unit or any other expert agencies within or which may be employed by the government to identify cases where uh suspect cases would stop for instance these cases may involve uh full stop uh this may be uh if this is possible comma the authorities shall uh identify before the court uh the identify the modalities which can be followed uh so as to segregate the tainted from the untainted students the third aspect on which uh we require a disclosure uh is in regard to the modalities to be followed uh between the conclusion of the examination including the retest which was held for 1563 students and the actual commencement of the counseling process let stop if uh an exercise is to be conducted by the NTA and by the union government so as to reduce any further beneficiaries of the question paper leakage a considered decision at the policy level would have to be taken by the government on whether counseling should be allowed to proceed in the meantime or otherwise not say that on the status of the council fourthly the court is concerned about the steps which should be taken Hereafter uh to ensure the sanctity of the uh of the uh National eligibility come Entrance Test so that such instances which have transpired during the course of the present session are not repeated in the future just one second please in this regard it would be necessary for the government to consider setting up uh a multi-disciplinary team consisting of uh renowned experts command The Wider confidence of the community to ensure that newe measures are being taken to new measures are being taken to obate any further reaches in the need in the future let stop uh if a committee has already been set up by the government for the for for deducing the steps to be taken for the future full details shall be made available to the court stop the court May then consider whether the committee which has been constituted by the government should be allowed to proceed as it is whether the composition of the committee should be uh should be should be uh should be enh sufficiently en toing so as to bring together a pool of talent from diverse Fields bearing not only on Administration but also on domain expertise and data analytics and Lear Council appearing solicitor general appearing for the union of India and Mr K M Lear sen counciling for the NTA have requested the court to B the further hearing on Thursday C so as to enable them to make their uh to file the do file the material in persons of the above uh queries by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday full stop the uh the affidavit the the affidavit shall be shared with Council appearing on the on behalf of the petitioners simultaneously the report of the investigating officer of the CBI shall also Beed on the record in the meantime may I say one aspect you know I'll tell you why let there be the reason like asking for this disclosure whatever view we ultimately take Let There Be confidence in the community that absolutely the entire can I in VI of the large number of council who are appearing on the side of the petitioners we have requested that we it has been agreed who will be the noal council independently sometime all right shall act as noal Council all the council for the petitioners who are desirous of pressing their submission for a d test shall file a common set of submissions not exceeding 10 pages by uh by before the next before the hearing takes place on Thursday allow thetion on this side can also time of L supported by the I appreciate but I also want to get out the fact are all cases where why don't you do this why don't you do this give us a short onepage note that will be more very very lordship said petitioners there are transfer petitions where we are essentially respondents and this is beyond the leak my Lord beyond the leak also yes my Lord there is also Chang the answer also they changed answer one question and the number yes Lord in fact it's happen in my case also where there are three we have not we have not specifically in our order including the red flags put it into our order but you can just see whether there are some cases like that which you can identify see so that then uh we have like to have perhaps they are not given copies the other ones who are intervening or Etc what we would suggest is what you give us on Thursday you and one more thing what you give us on Thursday make it comprehensive so that we don't have to wait through your counters and everything we just okay look at that basically make one small request we' now we can if we can using whatever technology uh common sense and our understanding of the law identify the wrongdoing students we then don't have to ask 23 lakh students to again appear for the exam if we have no other go of course we there to allow the implment applications for us to file that one page our diary number to be record is that matter neat matter right yes there are three other matters which we have to take s di number made all right any other fresh matters on neat which were not on board after you can give the matter numbers to the court Master he'll bring them on board one more thing Mr solister uh has everybody served their petitions on the we have right rep my not all right one again the council appearing for all the petitioners stroke Council appearing for all the petitioners stroke interveners Shall Serve copies on whom should we say Central MK maror on on MK marun and Mr and mran Kosik Council appearing Council instructing the solicit general and Mr Kosik RC Kosik respectively uh the uh the two Council appearing on behalf of the uh rep the two Council Mr Maria and Mr the union of India and the NTA shall prepare a tabulated statement uh indicating for each petition tabulated statement grouping the petitions into distinct categories so as to facilitate disposal so what you can do is those which are which are which which are asking for a retest you can put in one category then individual uh grievances then we'll see what whether those grievances can be entertained whether we ask you to look into it what to do but we'll have one tabulated chart on EAS just request one Indulgence that's why we said therefore you serve a copy on the they change the answer also they have ch answer of and given more 13,000 student problem for ranking is concerned but look this is nothing therefore those petitions you may have to dealing they are individual petitions those are individual petitions where you say you have a medical condition you should have been given extra time we'll deal with it separately it does not deal with the sanctity of the examination that's individual students order should not be deemed to be as restricting only to the case of leak because between the not at all in fact that's why we finally said this for the reason my lords on the 8th while the exam was announced for the fifth my lords of May on the 8th of April overnight my lords they brought about a notification that there will be a window open for students who could not register for the exam way back on 16th of March so this window that they opened by is absolutely difficult to so more students registered 25,000 item for one second of look more students registering Etc how can we suspect because the initial advertisement we hear you we'll hear you on that we he you the entire result the entire comprehensive result should be put on the website right now what's happening is individual results only are put up so somebody has to go so we can't Mr Kik Mr Kosik the entire result except for those which you have we will say that these results shall not give any give rise to any equities or legal rights but you must at least now approve the result yes the entire results the result comprehensive the data science can work here the revised result of 1563 and the rest of the persons all has been uploaded on 30th individually individually but do you haveed so that is why we can't use data science that's the problem if they they are deliberately keeping under RS no this would your lotes may take a call on that on Thursday but there is something has also of the we also looked at they found it as a matter of fact that it was being the sold question p paper was received by this gang on mobile phone on the morning of 5th of May where do we get that yes it is it is there let me let me come back to at page 292 of my second paragraph uh yes this this second paragraph at page 292 allow me to read that it says it was received on mobile phone by this Guang when were they received uh they here they say 5th of May 20124 in the morning and the students were made in groups were made to memorize the answers to these questions this is what the finding is as a matter of fact we have a video which was shown to me it's a uh telegram uh channel channel where it has been recorded which is on 4th of May the question paper and answers were being circulated on a telegram Channel this has been captured the date and the telegram Channel we have and the questions M the same question when were the question papers lodged in the locker what they will be able to tell me when were the question papers sent to the locker five six days prior to the specific date specific date and second when were they pulled out of the locker two lockers right State Bank of India and can Bank minutes now when were they pulled out to the locker on the date of the exam that is on 5th minutes not only the date which is relev the time the reference what time was the examination held fth minutes time was it the 2:00:00 520 3 hours 20 minutes now what what time were they pull out to the locker on the fifth around minutes 10:30 11: now at how many centers in India were the was the exam conducted in India 4,750 minutes 4,750 centers how many right how many cities 5 now please give us specific 571 and 15 centers were abroad mes 571 cities yes m and how many centers abroad 14 minutes 14 cities 14 cities Cent now tell us uh how many students appear totally 24 lakhs around minutes around 24 minutes you have the precise figure 23 lakh 7 I'll give you 23 lakh 33297 he against registration of 24 lakhs and plus 72,000 students mys did not take the exam spite registration now uh how were the papers distributed abroad they were sent and when were they sent abroad the embassies through the embassies and how are they sent to the embassies get the details were they sent by The Diplomatic bag were they sent by Courier I'll find out and pleas on record and second if the uh now they were the the the the exam was held in as many as 4,750 centers yes ma in 571 cities yes ma'am right yes ma'am now uh when you say that the two booklets we'll call them yes A and B set a and set B yes sir uh they were sent to these cities when were they sent to these cities yes pleas when were they sent to the approximately about we don't want tell us the precise dates I'll get the exact dates when were they and how were they sent to those cities yes I'll get the dates bear police and was and were they lodged in the State Bank and can Bank in each of these cities or what happened each of the Cities they are lodged with the custodians who are can bank and State Bank so we want to know on what date were the question papers sent where were they when were they when the question papers were prepared yes right question papers are prepared by one person or more than one person group of experts question papers are prepared at the headquarters where are the headquarters Delhi in Delhi so two sets are prep by two different groups or one group by the same one one second one second the same group of experts need two different sets of question at the headquarters yes after they prepared they given to the NTA yes right now tell us tell us when when did the group of persons conduct the prepare the question papers and give you the question dates I I'll get the date right we want to know what was the date on which these question papers were prepared and given to you point one yes pleas after they were received by NTA in what custody they were preserved when did NTA send them to the State Bank of India and Canada Bank to differen is in between printing is there printing presses sent to the printing press which is a printing press yes we will get the details we want to know which is the printing press yes when did you send these question papers to the printing press yes ma'am what what were the transportation arrangements made for sending them to the printing press yes when did the printing press after the printing press we them we now talking of 23 we 24 lakhs 50 lakh sets right because 24 lakh had how many sets were printed correct and after they were printed where were they sent are they sent back to the headquarters at Delhi yes please huh the the remaining sheets unutilized ones no no after the question paper is set it is sent for printing yes you have a printing press a yes you need not tell us where the printing press is otherwise next they will be they will go to that now it is sent to that printing press yes right how is it sent to the printing press under what custody yes second after they are printed how do the printing how do the printing press send it back to NTA between that date and give us that date how many days had elapsed between that and distribution of the question question papers to these 471 cities and 4,750 centers entire movement PL I'll prepare at that starting from the preparation of the question paper see I'll tell you why we are asking I if we come to the conclusion that the time lag between the leak and the actual date of the examination is relatively limited yes then that would be a circumstance which would militate against holding a retest not if the time lag between the leak and the actual examination brother Mish actually is is wider then there's a greater chance that the Malay is across the system I get it I'll get if if it appears that the question papers were leaked on the morning of the 5th exam was scheduled at 2:00 students were made to memorize the questions that may be one indicator that the leak was not as widespread somebody who has a question paper is not going to ask student to sit down and memorize them and give on the spot memorize them how many answers can a student memorize there are two aspects therefore we we have to have some clarity on facts for us to understand whether this is so systemic that we must order a watch see there are two or three considerations which way one if the if the sanctity of the examination has been lost then a retest has to be ordered right yeah if we are not able to identify students who are candidates who are guilty of wrongdoing a r test has to be ordered if you can't distinguish the grain from the Sha that is the tainted from the untainted a test has to be ordered your lord on the other hand right on the other hand on the other hand we are dealing with now a situation of 23 lakh students may be farfetch for us to at least presume unless they point out material to us that all 23 lakh students or a substan itial number of them are involved in the fraud for what we know a large number of students maybe just honest students who have appeared for the exam large number we have to but we have to see we have to see if you know second what was the modality one more very important aspect what was the modality in which the leak was detected if sorry if the leak took place if the modality of the leak is through electronic means social media then there's a possibility the leak is extremely that is the point said is all correct media you know we flagging these issues we want you to therefore give us a comprehensive analysis of dates certainly because if the leak is taking place through say telegram if it is taken through WhatsApp that happen you know because if it's through social media or any electronic means of communication like wildfire on the other hand uh we must also balance it out about the time at which the leak takes place if it's more or less in the morning of the 5th then the time between when the leak takes place and the students have to go for the examination very limited on is a hard decision one more thing which we require some assistance from both sides please don't treat it as an adversary litigation the reason for the reason for the reason one second for the reason that whatever view we ultimately take this view is impacting the lives of 20 second right second second we want to understand is it possible for the court to identify red flags right so can we identify either we do it or we appoint an expert committee to identify the red flags I'll give you some examples of red flags 720 out of 720 all every everybody out who's get 720 is not a fraud star there may be still people who are extraordinarily bright that 720 out of 720 but we found that for the previous years the proportion was very low now this year suddenly it goes up to 67 how many out of those 720 are people from that 1563 who are beneficiaries of the added Grace Mark we have given the details in our count no we just want you to now put it down on a piece of paper for us uh second second we want to understand this so a change in a change in centers is possible Right a change in centers is possible suppose a student I was just telling my brothers at lunch suppose a student is registered at lnno suddenly you find that student has gone from lnno to a distant Center thy and gets very and gets the 720 supp somebody registered at Amad and suddenly goes to a fair so that may be one that may be one example consider so we can you know we will have to do some if we have to sh separate the grain from the Sha we will have to identify certain red flags that those who fall in that red flag category we may have to then hold a limited retest for that category alone second is it possible to do using the Cyber forensic unit of say the uh Ministry of Home Affairs or whatever is it possible to do a data analytics on the on the entire result and to identify now there may be one category I was thinking you know when we were reflecting on this matter students who get exceptionally High marks in the in the need but whose performance noted in the 12th but there again but there again I'll tell you one thing one second again there is a there's a problem students don't study as hard for the 12th as they study for the only one one figure another another red flag another red flag another red flag a student get exceptionally High marks in one in one one faculty of science like say physics or chemistry but gets five marks in the others so you know because it may be unlikely that a student who is doing so brilliantly in one would not have studied at at all for the other faculty so the only point is that you know I'm not sure whether we should be doing this or whether these they have not declared the entire result also as brother Mishra says a full marks have a pattern we also I wanted to answer that we also want to understand we also want to understand the the pattern of need itself well the pattern quickly only questions on physics 45 questions on chemistry 45 on zoology and botony to totally 180 four marks so 45 questions on physics 45 on chemistry 45 on math on boty and 45 on zology so 45 times of four that is 180 180 into 4 720 right if you if you get a wrong answer minus one so therefore if you had uh given one 179 right uh right answers your score would have been 720 minus 5 that is 715 here there have been answers scores of 718 79 mathematically impossible because you lose four answer was that it is because of the grace marks to ret give me two minutes give me two minutes submission something you just some figures which are handy and that might answer I'm oblig your's question it's a very perent question we examine the pattern of 100 top ranking students those who were in the first 100 that analysis comes that they were distributed amongst 95 centers in 56 cities in 18 states or union territories the top 100 the top 100 huh they are found that they appeared in 95 centers located in 56 cities which are spread out in 18 states or Union and my Lord one second one second now page 86 of my reply page 37 is the one more thing which we want to know now is that how many F have been matter has been handed over to CBI for investigation I'll just tell you uh totally how many FS have been registered one F paper leak in Pat rest Mal are FS for some local practice how many totally F have been registered according to knowledge is not can you give us tomorrow maybe but'll second we want to know now one thing is very clear that the leak has taken place in yes in one Center no whether one Center we that's what we have to decide we the fact that the that the sanctity of the examination comprom is now compromised is beyond doubt that there has been a yes yes I'm I'm sorry now question is Mr solicor how widespread is that breach also the paper leak is not an admitted fact but my learnning friend relied upon that PR kind of a thing no an admitted fact but can we deny the fact that a leak of question yes yes yes the complete complete cover ad police biar police on that very day on which some news reporting came which my leared friend we issued this PR that this is false is not our briefing to the media no but is the case of NTA today that there is no leak ad ad Mr Mr Kik we take it that it's an admitted fact that there is a leak there is no question about it you know the nature of the leak is what we are determining yes we are asking question in the fact that there was a leakage of question papers is an is is cannot be disputed now what is the con sequence of that LE would depend upon the extensive nature of that leag if it Le or uncontained you don't I'll tell you one thing you don't cancel a whole examination merely because two students have committed a malpractice likewise assuming that there is a leak we don't live in an Ideal World there should be no leak but before we decide to order a leak a e test we must be we must be we must be careful about what is the nature of that leak because we are conscious of the fact that we are dealing with the careers 23 LH absolutely right abely asking look asking 23 lakh students to reappear for an examination together with the preparation cost travel and dislocation of admission schedules there is Choice unfortunately there is no choice has been leaked now therefore we want to know this therefore we would like to know first the entire process which to what is the what is the nature of the fs which have which have come forth when how was the leak what what is the point of time at which the leak took place how was the leak disseminated these are important question and next very important what is the what are the what are the actions what are the actions which the government of India and NTA have taken identify the wrongdoing students are the beneficiaries of the wrong first I'd like to make I'd like to make submission I'm inan 31.9 my Lord e we have understood your L's question they very pertinent question and that would ultimately lead but I one one second Mr s we also want to know what is the what are the step steps which have been taken by the NTA and by the government to identify the beneficiaries of the leaks because that we have to we have to go with we have to be ruthless on identifying the beneficiaries we also have to be ruthless right because anybody who has breached the examination is not entitled to be there as a successful those who are identified their results are but give me an example how many we want to know how many have been identified but more than how many have been identified we want to know what was the course of action which was taken by the government kindly allow me to give an example for the time being leave biar I'll call the police also I take instructions take for example gudra gdra inent it passes on as a paper leak case it's not a paper leak case what happened was there was one superintendent of one particular Center called J J jalaram School his name is Tushar B but he arranged with certain students that he didn't have the paper but he said said that whatever answers you can confidently answer you give the answers these are multiple choice questions with negative marking and therefore I would have a window of 3 hours before uh after I take your papers back and I S it and send it to the concern Authority fortunately the authorities the district magistrate came to know about this it must have percolated from somewhere therefore the moment examination started the entire District administration and entire police Administration was there the papers after the examination were taken in their custody sealed in their presence and sent and that man was arrested now from his mobile there were several video chats which were found and we could identify that these were the people who with whom he was in touch so those identified students their papers are uh the their results are with and they are issued soos notices why should they not be want to know totally but what concerned about PNA PNA is leakage we are not complaining I'm only about paper leakage nothing else all of are minor issues Min issues nobody would ask for nobody would ask for the examination overall in the entire country right how many students whose uh whose results have been withheld uh o to what is we what we are discussing today individual one student cheating from another student we are not bothered about that absolutely that the law will take its own course yes how many students are there whose results have been withheld as a result of the systemic uh so we won't say systemic as a result of the leage so and and where are those students situated you want to see the geographical distribution of those students are they in one state are they in multiple states where are they situated and and third now one more thing which we'd like to also dwell on is uh the following Justice the order passed by the bench prided over by honorable J Vikram in the in the vacation 1563 students there was a retest that was held on the 23rd of June or 21st of June 23rd of June it has been now one second one second one second just just tell us for this examination now are we still in the process of identifying the wrong of the wrongdoers in terms of the students we're not talking of those who are perpetrators but beneficiaries have we been able to completely identify the students who are the beneficiaries or is that process still going answer is no for inst for instance for instance one second for instance look if we have no go if we have no go we'll have to cancel the exam there has been no effort whatever on that side as a quot yes this cancellation of a test of this nature 24 lakh students is a matter is a matter of extreme last because it may be you know this right therefore therefore we asking questions about when was the what was the time at which the leage to so that will give us an idea of what was the opportunity for dissemination there are 56 quick answer quick answer if you're just one second one second Mr solicitor Mr solicitor one second second one second one second just one second everything by after one second one more one more thing I want to ask you is that with the kind of technology which we have today at our disposal and the government of India has it cyber forensic unit is it not possible for us to run through the use of experts to bring some sense of confidence to the process uh that you know you you carry out a detailed uh data analytics exercise to see if there are suspicious markers now we have to identify what the suspicious markers are all right so I just want to say one thing let us not be in self-denial absolutely right the you know self-denial is only adding to the problems because now everybody knows there was a leap so let's not we have two or three things we have to see what happened for this exam what we do in the ongoing process for the conclusion of this year's admission and finally which is the third aspect of the matter which we'll answer what do we ensure what do we do to ensure that the leak does not take place again in the future or what are the steps we are taken to ensure that you know the dissemination in the future does not result in the leaks that we have uh that we have encountered on the last aspect subject to hearing you there should be a there should be a sort of a multi-disciplinary committee consisting of the best experts not necessarily only from the government but people who have very wide experience and who are respect across the country because we are you know today we are dealing I don't have to emphasize it we are dealing with the most prestigious of educational admissions every middle class par which theas every middle middle class parents aspires the children to go to medicine or engineering or you know now uh what are we doing to ensure that these that this will not happen in future and how are we planning to tighten the examinations process is there an audit being conducted by the government on what went wrong in the N that's one aspect what do we do the there a third aspect second aspect assuming that we are not going to cancel the entire exam what do we do between today and the date of admissions to identify those who are beneficiaries of the fraud and the first aspect first aspect do we cancel the exam or do we allow the counseling to go through by identifying the beneficiaries and on the first aspect we'd like to know from government what have you done so far to identify those who are beneficiaries of the I can assure you lot one thing but we are not we are not adversary report the yes report of the CB and police that is most important report of the CB and the P police Mr solicitor you know they have from one second from what they are trying to emphasize we find that they they place a great deal of emphasis on the fact that in the uh 2021 22 23 you had 1 + 3 + 1 + 2 that is 4 and 1 5 and 2 7 students who got 720 out of 720 in four years this year we have 67 67 who get 720 which 6 one second we have an answer no no I have one more question what is the what one second what is the percentile distribution in this exam across categories not just 720 centers no no no the the distribution of marks is it skewed at the top in the last year suppose how many were in the bottom third percentile in the middle third percentile in the top third percentile this year is this year in the sense that will give us an indicator was the was the pattern was it a paper leak was the examination pattern comparatively easier as opposed to the previous years we have corre we have done the an we place it have given that answer page Noe the chart I have given that satisfies my Lord's query the uh marks I have compared given the table somebody in 2022 who obtained 700 marks see this table for moment that you throw light on my Lord's quy uh 222 somebody who obtained 700 marks yes in 2022 his rank was 94 right in 23 somebody 700 his rank was 247 then somebody has 700 in 2024 his rank is 2,250 he goes down down because also there question also there is another aspect one second how many students appeared in 2022 23 and 24 same same same is showing it is showing it the 56 students that are number Stoppers kindly see the difference I also there is another aspect to it increase in a very linear fashion why not there is another aspect to it in fact NTA has published several answer key my Lord I'd like to point H Lord I'd like to I'd also like to point out um some may I see something submission rest all of them have been meritorious have scored highest Mark in class 10 and 12 in in so far as Gujarat is concerned in this 56 people that have come before aot so this is a case where all of us are facing tremendous mental Agony because of this that's all now we can leave Al leave aside the emotions you can TR what what we want to know Mr what we want to know is this we will have these you know we'll have these anecdotal uh you know charts like this which are given to us can is there please take instructions from the government can we not run this through a data analytics program with the Cyber forensic you can contact if the government has that in the ministry of Home Affairs so much the better if you don't have it you can ask any of our top uh service providers to to to find out because we have to identify a whether the you know whether these the skewing of marks is so systemic that the whole examination is affected or is it possible to identify people who are wrongdoers or likely wrongdoers in which case a retest can be held for those students only I'd like to make a small sub but I can assure you about one thing but we are not adversarial to the petitioners either way the petitioners who have an apprehension of an all- India problem or petitioners 23 LS in plus who are Lord feeling insecure because they may have to face another examination but we are concerned about both the sides and we will assist your L dispassionately whatever your suggested I think the solution lies somewhere else what we'd like to do in so far as the petitioners are concerned pleas all lawyers for the petitioners please we'll take it up on Wednesday give them my days time also wanted one day's time we'll give you a day's time to put your together we want all the lawyers for the petitioners who are asking for a retest who are asking for a retest to sit together between now and wnes day and give us one set of submissions viation we can't have we can't have people you know 100 lawyers arguing before us on 100 different grounds we want you to all sit down we'll appoint one noal Council as we do in the CB matters you give us a one Consolidated submission say not exceeding 10 pages you don't mind it should it shouldn't exceed 10 pages why youing for a ref all right on for that purpose likewise we'll do this we will ask the government to circulate a comprehensive list of dates and a response to what we have uh what we have uh what we have raised CBI directed everything is with CBI NTA as we have seen in the reply they say we do not know whether it was systemic or not here sometime they completely deny this so let the CBI file a status report before this honorable Court in all six FS that will place the picture that in which direction the investigation is going all filteration in between submit a status report me take instructions froming for the CBI CBI file the stat why don't you do this ask C to file the Le has on Investigation whether it is systemic or whether suggestion consider it I'd like to make a small submission my Lord here also me only one one request I call for the record from the CBI also and because something not public how to place it before Etc can I request this is our joint request that we file everything as suggested by by Wednesday and matter can be heard on Thursday so we are not nobody is taken by surprise that what is the document we'll prepare it today file it by day after and we can have that filteration which happens in between but the investigating officer is the best person I'm not overall he's saying take it up on Thursday they will so you will get 24 hours to study what they are saying and in the metime if just consider one more the entire result of 2 23 LH people be declared on their website they not declared that result we will also analyze the data because they declared the result of 100 we could see that six people who secured rank one are from the same Center is De able to not comprehensiv on the I'd like to make a small submission you made your got the same 720 720 72 how is it possible my question is that people CER in question all sh different result is are different how is it possible keys for same om multiple answer keys for has been published by the NTA on it website opened up on the 8th of April for enlisting students M on a 24-hour window on the 9th and the 10th of April M and answer also they have changed the answer also this is and then the second question that why the has declared the result the four June my Lord question already my Lord three answer keys for the same set of question paper how can that how can NTA publish that n also should be investigated are there how many total 1,000 1 lak 10,000 approximately is government how many lak 18,000 something is the exact figure 56,000 is the government buling is on the government so that they can do private one my Lord I'd like to make a small submission my Lord my lordship it's my humble request data which is come out it will be important this please come out sheet status my Lord on VC I may be allowed to make a small submission of 30 seconds which is open on the 9th of 9 April sir my lordship the portal is opened on 9th April 2024 it's my humble request please give the clear data to find out so that we can my lords why the window was open on 8th and 9th what is the reason days sir and what was the result because this is the only difference my Lord identified 15 candidate who are something and we we we'll now place it on Thursday we'll just give some direction to the matter so we'll be able to focus on what we want on 9 February 20 24 the national testing agency into brackets NTA issued an online application form for the national eligibility come Entrance Test into brackets neet ug braet 2024 stop NTA conducted the neat ug examination on 5 may 20124 let stop results we declare on on 4th June 2024 next on 5 May 2024 from the material which is emerged on the record at the present stage comma it appears that on 5 May 2024 the first information report wearing fi number 358 stroke 20124 was launched at P shastri nagar Patna alleging a leak in the neit ug 2024 question papers implicating offenses under sections 407 408 and 409 read with section 120b of the Cod on 23 June 2024 the economic offenses unit of Bihar police issued a press release noting that in connection with the above F 13 persons including candidates and members of and into invert commas members of the organized gang of examin leak sorry I should not interrupt this is what I gave to this is not true that is what the biar police on that very de clar where is that CL I had just my friend is wrong police no no you trying to cover up this is on that very day published by the biar police this is with regard to the news report of NE ug exam published in the Sunday Express Newspaper dated 23rd June on its front page with the headline Bihar police so this press release is not an official press release no no that's what the be police clarifies ons read it further forar he handed this over to me just in the news item the UND sign has been wrongly quoted and the name has been mentioned at least three times in the news item by the correspondence so and so whereas the matter of fact is that no such brief had been given by the undersign to him in this regard and neither the concern correspondent ever contacted me before attributing the court to the undersign no official press release or statement in this matter had been issued this irresponsible Act of correspond second according to the petitioners on 23 June 2024 a press release was issued by the economic offenses unit ofar police setting out in regard to the uh paper leak which had taken place the other Handa from a communication dat 23 June 2024 addressed by the additional DGP economic offenses unit it has been stated that no official press release or statement that's an act of had been had been issued by the Bihar police good stop be that as it may in this batch of petitions one of the primary reliefs which has been sought is for what mandated retest the entire process which took place culminating in the examination which was conducted on 5 May 2024 stop in support of the case in support of the of their case the petitioners have relied on primary circumstances first it has been submitted that before that you can just say the neat UGI 2024 examination consisted of multiple choice questions involving a total of 180 questions question s let's stop the each of the 180 questions carried four marks making for a total of 720 marks for the examination 45 marks each were allotted to the segments in physics chemistry chemistry and geology and oology physics chemistry botony and zyy St the examination in this agage yeah word of negative marks of of of one of one negative Mark per wrong answer uh per wrong answer next in support of The Plea that the court should direct are examination the petitioners relied on two circumstances first it has been submitted that between in in that candidate securing maximum the maximum of 720 marks what can to a few students a few between 2020 and 2023 in 2020 full stop as opposed to this in the neat UI 2024 as many as 67 candidates are reported to have secured maximum of 720 marks the submission can best be highlighted by reproducing the chart which has been placed during the course of the hearing AA comp above chart indicates that while only once that while one student in 2020 on three students in 2021 one student in 2022 and two students in 2023 secured the maximum marks there's been a radical increase in the student securing the maximum of 720 marks in 20124 apart from the second submission proceeds on a comparative tabulation of the ranks which would be which were allotted to students in 2022 2023 and 2024 for me for me most important the league has happened that uh the second uh the above submission is sought to be highlighted from the following related chart above chart indicates that students receiving specific level of marks between 539 and 700 what secured a particular rank in 2022 secured lower ranks in 2023 and a radically lower Mark a radically lower rank in 2024 no no no same marks same level of marks not same student stop next considering weather before that you can say uh it is certain basic facts which are not in dispute need to be alluded to about 24 lakh students registered for the neat ug examination which is to be conducted in the month of May 2024 stop about 2333 lakh students correct yes sir appeared for the 23 lakh 33297 students 23 lakh 23,29 students 297 students appeared for the examination the examination was conducted at 4750 Center comprised within 571 cities stop the examination was also held in 14 cities overseas stop the total number of seats medical seats for undergraduate one second I've made a note for undergraduate studies uh is 1.08 lakhs of which approximately 56,000 are seats in government hospitals good stop the investigation primc from tentatively at the present stage the court has been arised of the fact and the don't say tentatively the court has been apprised of the fact that first information reports were registered in Patna Gujarat Rajasthan jaran and Maharashtra correct stop uh whether the uh whether the uh whether the uh files in relation to the paper leag is only confined to yes or otherwise is a matter which would have to be reserved for a more detailed elaboration detailed consideration one stop the above narration indicates that the examination was conducted over a wi spectrum comprising of nearly 23 lak students spread over 4,750 centers in India good stuff therefore the court can be full stop uh the law on weather a retest should be ordered in a situation such as the present is based on fairly settled parameters let the court would have to scrutinize on the basis of the data which has emerged on the record whether po one breach in the sanctity of the examination has taken place wether bracket one the alleged breach has taken place at a system at a systemic level or at a systemic level semicolon bracket two whether the reach is of a nature which has affected the Integrity of the exam of the entire examinations process and three whether it is possible to segregate beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students stop in a situation where the reach in the sanctity of an examination affects the entirety of the process and it is it is not possible to segregate those who are the beneficiaries of wrongdoing from others comma it may be necessary to order examination on the other contrary wise where the reach is confined to specific areas or centers and it is possible to identify those who are beneficiaries of wrongdoing it may not be appropriate to order a retest particularly in an examination which has been conducted on such a massive scale involving over 23 lakh students involving such a large body of students who would haveed who who have studied for the examination undertaken costs and expenses and would have to undergo the rigors of a fresh examination if it were to be ordered by the court next while flagging these issues while flagging the above issues comma we are of the view that view on the merits would have to be deferred until further facts are replaced on the record before this court One Stop the we for that purpose we intend to direct the national testing agency to make a full disclosure uh before the court let stop the disclosure which we are intending to require can broadly be classified into three aspects the first aspect pertains to the nature of the leak places where the leak took place and the lag of time between the occurrence of the leak and the conduct of the examination and this on on from this perspective comma NTA must nth has directed to clarify on the basis of the material which is in its possession as of date on the following issues record one when the leak of the question papers has first taken place to the manner in which the question papers were leaked or disseminated braet three the duration between the time duration between the occurrence of the leak and the actual conduct of the examination which took place at 2 p.m. between 2 p.m. and 5:20 p.m. on 5 May 2024 uh the second uh uh while while making the uh full stop uh on the above aspect comma we are also of the view that since the investigation has been interested to the CBI comma the status report should be filed by the investigating officer before this quot indicating the status of the the state indicating the the status of the investigation up to date in the material which has come to light during the course of the investigation one one may uh one may when the leak first was first noticed was first notice the investigating officer shall in particular indicate to this court shall shall place before this court material which has been gathered during the course of the investigation which would have a bearing on when the leak is alleged to have first taken place in the modalities in which the leak question papers were made available stop uh on the second the second perspective the second aspect on which we NTA shall a disos of this scod is in regard to the steps which have been taken so far for identification of the beneficiaries of the leag regard the court would be apprised deria of the following bracket one how many students what were the steps which were taken by NTA to identify the centers stroke cities at which the leak took place to modalities followed for identifying the beneficiaries of the leak and three the number of students who have so far been identified to be the beneficiaries of the leaked question papers likewise the investigating officer trck Authority because identification will not be within hour all right uh the above information I I'll clarify while editing I'll put it so that it will be more the ministry of Home Affairs or some other the link will be at one place that how many centers the leak paper has been made available because leak will be in the entire at one no no we have said we have said the dissemination also we have said the uh investigating officer shall also submit in status report bearing on the above aspects yes well third the third aspect uh on which uh it is necessary to have a further Disclosure by the union government as well as by n we say Union government and N is whether it is possible by the union government and N is whether to be is is on WEA uh technically feasible yeah whether it would be feasible using the uh using data analytics either within the Cyber forensic unit or any other expert agencies within or which may be employed by the government to identify cases where uh suspect cases would stop for instance these cases may involve uh full stop uh this may be uh if this is possible comma the authori shall uh identify before the court uh the identify the modalities which can be followed uh so as to segregate the tainted from the untainted students the third aspect on which uh we would require a disclosure uh is in regard to the modalities to be followed uh between the conclusion of the examination including the retest which was held for 1563 students and the ual commencement of the counseling process what stop if uh an exercise is to be conducted by the NTA and by the union government so as to reduce any further beneficiaries of the question paper leakage a considered decision at the policy level would have to be taken by the government on whether Council could be allowed to proceed in the meantime or otherwise not say that on the status of the council fourthly the court is concerned about the steps which should be taken Hereafter uh to ensure the sanctity of the uh of the uh National eligibility come Entrance Test so that such instances which have transpired during the course of the present session are not repeated in the future disregard just one second please in this regard it would be necessary for the government to consider setting up uh a multidisiplinary team consisting of uh renowned experts command The Wider confidence of the community to ensure that due measures are being taken to new measures are being taken to obate any further reaches in the need in the future stop uh if a committee has already been set up by the government for the for for deducing the steps to be taken for the future full details shall be made available to the court stop the court May then consider whether the committee which has been constituted by the government should be allowed to proceed as it is whether the comp composition of the committee should be uh should be should be uh should be en to bring so as to bring together a pool of talent from diverse Fields bearing not only on Administration but also on domain expert I and data analytics and Mr Kosik Lear Council appearing solicitor general appearing for the union of India and Mr K mros Lear sen Council appearing for the NTA have uh requested the court to B the further hearing on Thursday K so as to enable them to make their uh to file the doc file the material in persons of the above uh queries by 5:00 pm on Wednesday full stop the uh the affidavit the the affidavit shall be shared with Council appearing on the on behalf of the petitioners simultaneously the report of the investigating officer of the CBI shall also be placed on the record in the meantime may I only to say one aspect you know I'll tell you why let there be the reason why we asking for this disclosure whatever view we ultimately take Let There Be confidence in the community that absolutely in view of the large number of council who are appearing on the side of the petitioners we have requested that we it has been agreed who will be the noal councel independently sometime shall act as noal Council all the council for the petitioners who are desirous of pressing their submission for a d test shall file a common set of submissions not exceeding 10 pages by uh uh by before the next before the hearing takes place on Thursday allow thetion on this side can also of supported by the I appreciate but I also want to get out the fact are all cases where why don't you do this why don't you do this give us a short onepage note that will be more very very very whereever your lordship said petitioners there are transfer petitions where we are essentially respondents and this is beyond the leak my Lord beyond the leak also yes my Lord there is also change the answer also change answer one question anded the number yes Lord in fact it's happened in my case also where there are three we have not we have not specifically in our order including the red flags you I put it into our order but you can just see whether there are some cases like that which you can identify see so that then uh we have like toer perhaps they are not given copies the other ones who are intervening or Etc what we would suggest is what you give us on uh Thursday you and one more thing what you give us on Thursday make it comprehensive so that we don't have to wait through your counters and everything we just okay look at that basically make one small request we if we can if we can using whatever technology uh common sense and our understanding of the law identify the wrongdoing students we then don't have to ask 20 L students to again appear for the exam if we have no other go of course we there to allow the implment applications for us to file that one page of our diary number to be record that matter neat matter right yes there are three other matters which we have to take s our Diary Number made not all right any other fresh matters on neat which were not on board yes after you can give the matters numbers to the court Master he bring them on board one more thing Mr solister has everybody served their petitions on the but we have not rep my not all right one second the council appearing for all the petitioners stroke Council appearing for all the petitioners stroke interveners Shall Serve copies on whom should we say Central MK Mar on on MK maruia and Mr and Mr vaman Kosik Council appearing Council instructing the solicit general and Mr Kosik RC Kosik respectively uh the uh the two Council appearing on behalf of the uh rep the two Council Mr Maria and Mr the union of India and the NTA shall prepare a tabulated statement uh indicating for each ition tabulated statement grouping the petitions into distinct categories so as to facilitate disposal so what you can do is those which are which are which which are asking for a retest you can put in one category then individual uh grievances then we'll see what whether those grievances can be entertained whether we ask you to look into it what to do but we'll have one tabulated chart on EAS just request one indigence that's why we said therefore you serve a copy on the they changed answer also they answer and given more 1,000 student problem for ranking is concerned but look this is nothing therefore those petitions you may have to dealing they are individual petitions those are individual petitions where you say you have a medical condition you should have been given extra time we'll deal with it separately it does not deal with the sanctity of the examination that's individual students order should not be deemed to be as restricting only to the case of leak because between the not at all in fact that's why we finally said this for the reason my Lord on the 8th while the exam was announced for the fifth my lords of May on the 8th of April overnight my lords they brought about a notification that there will be a window open for students who could not register for the exam way back in 201 16th of March so this window that they opened by is absolutely difficult to understand so more students registered 25,000 item for one second of look more students registering Etc can we suspect because the initial advertisement hear you we'll hear you on that we hear you the entire result the entire comprehensive result should be put on the website right now what's happening is individual results only are put up so somebody has to go so we can't Mr Kik Mr Kosik the entire result except for those which you have we will say that these result shall not give any give rise to any equities or legal rights but you must at least now approve the result yes the entire results comprehensive the data science can work here the revised result of 1563 and the rest of the persons all has been uploaded on 30th no individually individually but do you haveed so that is why we can't use data science that's the problem if they they are deliberately keeping under RS this would your L may take a call on that on Thursday but there is something also looked at they found it as a matter of fact that it was being the sold question paper was receiv received by this gang on mobile phone on the morning of 5th of May where do we get that yes it is it is there let me let me come back to page 292 of my second paragraph uh uh yes this this second paragraph at page 292 allow me to read that let says it was received on mobile phone by this gang when were they received uh they here they say 5th of May 2024 in the morning and the students were made in groups were made to memorize the answers to these questions this is what the finding is as a matter of fact we have a video which was shown to me it's a uh telegram uh Channel Channel where uh it has been recorded which is on 4th of May the question paper and answers were being circulated on a telegram Channel this has been captured the date and the telegram Channel we have and the questions have been Meed the same question when were the question papers uh lodged in the locker what they will be able to tell me when were the question papers sent to the locker 5 six days prior to the specific dat specific date and second when were they pulled out of the locker two lockers right State Bank of India and can Bank bank now when were they pulled out to the locker on the date of the exam that is on 5th minutes not only the date which is relevant the time refence what time was the examination held 5th minutes what time was it 2 in the after 2:00 520 3 hours 20 minutes now what what time were they pulled out of the Locker on the fifth around minutes 10:30 11:00 now at how many centers in India were the was the exam conducted in India 4,75 minutes 4,750 Center how many right how many cities now please give us specific 571 and 15 centers were abroad minutes 571 cities yes and how many centers abroad 14 minutes 14 cities 14 cities centers B now tell us uh how many students appeared totally 24 lakhs around minutes around 24 minutes you have the precise figure 23 lakh I'll give you 23 lakh 33297 against registration of 24 lakhs and plus 72,000 students Mel did not take the exam spite registration now uh how were the papers distributed abroad they were sent and when were they sent abroad the embassies through the embassies and how are they sent to the embassies get the details were they sent by The Diplomatic bag was it sent by ker I'll find out and pleas on record and and second if the uh now they were the the the the exam was held in as many as 4,750 centers yes ma'am in 571 cities yes ma'am right yes ma'am now uh when you say that the two booklets we'll call them yes A and B set a and set B yes uh they were sent to these cities when were they sent to these cities yes pleas when were they sent to these about we don't tell us the precise dates I'll get the exact dates when were they and how were they sent to those cities yes pleas I'll get dets bear police and was and were they lodged in the State Bank and Canada Bank in each of these cities or what happened each of the Cities they are lodged with the custodians who are mes KRA bank and State Bank so we want to know on what date were the question papers sent where were they when were they when the question papers were prepared yes right question papers are prepared by one person or more than one person group of experts question papers are prepared at the headquarters where are the headquarters Delhi in Delhi so two sets are prepared by two different groups or one group by the same one second one second the same group of experts there's two different sets of question at the headquarters yes after they prepared they given to the NTA yes right now tell us tell us when when did the group of persons conduct the prepare the question papers and give you the question papers I I'll get the date right we want to know what was the date on which these question papers were prepared and given to you point one yes after they were received by NTA in what custody they were preserved when did NTA send them to the State Bank of India and gen Bank to different cities in between printing is there printing presses sent to the printing PR which is a printing press yes we will get the details we want to know which is the printing press yes when did you send these question papers to the printing press yes M what were the transportation arrangements made for sending them to the printing press yes when did the printing press after the printing press them we now talking of 23 24 lakhs 50 lakh sets yes right because 24 lakh how many sets were printed correct and after they were printed where were they sent are they sent back to the headquarters at Delhi yes please huh the the remaining sheets unutilized ones no no after the question paper is said it is sent for printing yes you have a printing press a yes you need not tell us where the printing press is otherwise next year there'll be they will go that now it is sent to that printing press yes right how is it sent to the printing press under what custody yes second after they are printed how do the printing how do the printing press send it back to NTA between that date and give us that date how many days had elapsed between that and the distribution of the question question papers to these 471 cities and 4750 centers entire movement PL I'll prepare a track starting from the preparation of the uh question paper see I'll tell you why we are asking came I if we come to the conclusion that the time lag between the leak and the actual date of the examination is relatively limited yes then that would be a circumstance which would militate against holding a retest not if the time lag between the leak and the actual examination brother Mish actually men is is wider then there's a greater chance that the Malay is across the system I get it I'll if if it appears that the question paper were leaked on the morning of the 5th exam was scheduled at 2:00 students were made to memorize the questions that may be one indicator that the leak was not as widespread somebody who has the question paper is not going to ask students to sit down and memorize them and give on the spot memorize them how many answers can a student memorize there are two aspects to therefore we we have to have some clarity on facts for us to understand whether this is so systemic that we must order a see there are two or three considerations which way one if the if the sanctity of the examination has been lost then a retest has to be ordered right yeah if we are not able to identify students who are candidates who are guilty of wrongdoing a r test has to be ordered if you can't distinguish the grain from the Sha that is the tainted from the untainted a test has to be ordered theud on the other hand right on on the other hand on the other hand we are dealing with now a situation of 23 lakh students may be farfetch for us to at least presume unless they point out material to us that all 23 lakh students or a substantial number of them are involved in the fraud for what we know a large number of students maybe just honest students who have appeared for the exam large we have to but we have to see we have to see if you know second what was the modality one more very important aspect what was the modality in which the leak was detected if sorry if the leak took place if the modality of the leak is through electronic means social media then there is a possibility the leak is extremely that is the point said is all correct Med you know dragging these issues we want you to therefore give us a comprehensive analysis of dates certainly because if the leak is taking place through say telegram if it is taken through WhatsApp that happen you know because if it's through social media or any electronic means of communication like wildfire on the other hand uh we must also balance it out about the time at which the leak takes place if it's more or less in the morning of the 5th then the time between when the leak takes place and the students have to go for the examination very limited on is a hard decision one more thing in which we require some assistance from both Sid please don't treat it as an adversary litigation the reason for the reason for the reason one second for the reason that whatever view we ultimately take this view is impacting the lives of 20 second right second second we want to understand is it possible for the court to identify red flags right so can we identify either we do it or we appoint an expert committee to identify the red flags I'll give you some examples of red flags 720 out of 720 all right every everybody out who get 720 is not a fraud star there may be still people who are extraordinarily bright that 720 out of 720 but we found that for the previous years the proportion was very low or now this year suddenly it goes up to 67 how many out of those 720 are people from that 1563 who are beneficiaries of the added Grace Mark we have given the details in our count 81 places no we just want you to now put it down on a piece of paper for us uh second second we want to understand this so a change in a change in centers is possible Right a change in centers is possible suppose a student I was just telling my brothers at lunch suppose a student is registered at lnno suddenly you find that student has gone from lnno to a distant Center and gets very and gets the 720 suppose somebody is registered at Amad and suddenly goes to a fairly dist so that may be one that may be one example yes so we can you know we will have to do some if we have to sh separate the grain from the sha we will have to identify certain red flags that those who fall in that red flag category we may have to then hold a limited retest for that category alone second is it possible to do using the Cyber forensic unit of say the uh Ministry of Home Affairs or whatever is it possible to do a data analytics on the on the entire result and to identify now there may be one category I was thinking you know when we were reflecting on this matter students who get exceptionally High marks in the in the need but whose performance is not reflected in the 12th but there again but there again I'll tell you one thing one second there again there is a there's a problem students don't study as hard for the 12th as they study for the only one one figure another another red flag another red flag red flag a student get exceptionally High marks in one in one one faculty of science like say physics or chemistry but gets five marks in the others so you know because it may be unlikely that a student who is doing so brilliantly in one would not have studied at at all for the other faculty so the only point is that you know I'm not sure whether we should be doing this or whether these would but they have not declared the entire result also as brother say does the full marks have a pattern we also I wanted to answer that we also want to understand we also want to understand the the pattern of neat itself well the pattern quickly only 45 questions on physics 45 questions on chemistry 45 on zoology and botony to totally 180 four marks so 45 questions on physics 45 on chemistry 45 on math on on botney and 45 on zoology so 45 * 4 that is 180 180 into 4 720 right if you if you get a wrong answer minus one so therefore if you had uh given 179 right uh right answers your score would have been 720 minus 5 that is 715 here there have been answers uh scores of 718 79 mathematically impossible because you lose four answer was that it is because of the grace marks to retest give me two minutes give me two minutes submission something just some figures which are handy and that might answer I'm oblig your's question it's a very pertinent question we examine the pattern of 100 top ranking students those who were in the first 100 but the analysis comes that they were distributed amongst 95 centers in 56 cities in 18 states or union territories the the top 100 the top 100 huh they are found they appeared in 95 Centers located in 56 cities which are spread out in 18 states or Union and my Lord one second one second now page 86 of my reply page 37 is the one more thing which we want to know now is that how many fi have been matter has been handed over to CB for investigation I I'll just tell you totally how many FS have been registered one F paper leak in P rest Malon are FS for some local Mal practice how many totally FS have been registered according to them our knowledge is not can you give us tomorrow but'll I tell you second we want to know now one thing is very clear that the leak has taken place in yes in one Center no with one Center we that's what we have to decide we the fact that the that the sanctity of the examination compromis is now compromised is beyond doubt that there has been a yes yes I'm I'm sorry now question is Mr solicor how widespread is that also paper leak is not an admitted fact but my learned friend relied upon that press not kind of a thing no an ad but can we deny the fact that a leak of question yes complete complete cover ad biar police on that very day on which the some news reporting came with my learned friend Mr we issued this PR that this is false this is not our briefing to the media no but is the case of NTA today that there is no leak ad Mr we take it that it's an admitted fact that there is a leak there is no question about it but what you know the nature of the leak is what we are determining yes we are asking questions in the fact that there was a leakage of question papers is an is is cannot be disputed now what is the consequence of the Le would depend upon the extensive nature of that LE if it Le or uncontained you don't I'll tell you one thing you don't cancel a whole examination merely because two students have committed a malpractice likewise assuming that there is a leak we don't live in an Ideal World there should be no leak but before we decide to order a leak a r test we must be we must be we must be careful about what is the nature of that leak because we are conscious of the fact that we are dealing with a careers of 23 L absolutely right abely asking look asking 23 lakh students to reappear for an examination together with the preparation cost travel and dislocation of admission schedules there is Choice unfortunately there is no choice has been leaked now now therefore we want to know this therefore we would like to know first the entire process which takes place to what is the what is the nature of the fs which have which have come forth when how was the leak what what is the point of time at which the leak took place how was the leak disseminated these are important questions and next very important what is the what are the what are the actions what are the actions which the government of India and NTA have taken identify the wrongdoing students or the beneficiaries of the wrong I'd like to make I'd like to make submission I'm inan 31.9 my Lord we have understood lot's question they are very pertinent question and that would ultimately lead but I one one one second Mr Sol we also want to know what is the what are the steps which have been taken by the NTA and by the government to identify the beneficiaries of the leaks because that we have to we have to go with we have to be ruthless on identifying the beneficiaries we also have to be ruthless because anybody who has breached the exam is not to be there as a successful those who are identified their results but give me how many we want to know how many have been identified but more than how many have been identified we want to know what was the course of action which was taken by the government kindly allow me to give an example for the time being leave biar I'll call the police also I'll take instructions take for example gdra gdra inent it passes on as a paper leak case it's not a leak is what happened was there was one superintendent of one particular Center called J J jalaram school is his name is Tushar B but he arranged with certain students that he didn't have the paper but he said that whatever answers you can confidently answer you give the answers these are multiple choice questions with negative marking and therefore I would have a window of 3 hours before uh after I take your papers back and I se it and send it to the concern Authority fortunately the authorities the district magistrate came to know about this it must have percolated from somewhere therefore the moment examination started the entire District administration and entire police Administration was there the papers after the examination were taken in their custody sealed in their presence and sent and that man was arrested now from his mobile there were several video chats which were found and we could identify that these were the people who with whom he was in touch so those identified students their papers are results are with and they are issued shos notices why should they not be we want to know totally concerned about partna partna is leakage we are not complaining I'm only about paper leakage nothing else all of are minor issues Min issues nobody would ask for nobody would ask for the examination overall in the entire country how many students whose uh whose results have been withheld uh owing to what is we are what we are discussing today individual one student cheating from another student we are not bothered about absolutely that the law will take it call yes how many students are there whose results have been withheld as a result of the systemic so we won't say systemic as a result of the leakage so and and where are those students situated you want to see the geographical distribution of those students are they in one state are they in multiple states where are they situated and and third now one more thing which we'd like to also dwell on is uh the following Justice the order passed by the bench prided over by honorable J Vikram in the in the vacation 1563 students there was a retest that was held on the 23rd of June or 21st of June 23rd of June it has been one second one second one second just just tell us for this examination now are we still in the process of identifying the wrong of the wrongdoers in terms of the students we're not talking of those who are perpetrators but beneficiaries have we been able to completely identify the students who are the beneficiaries or is that process still ongoing answer is no for instance for instance for instance one second for instance look if we have no go if we have no go we'll have to cancel the exam there has been no effort whatever on that side as a quote yes this cancellation of a test of this nature 24 lakh students completely agree with is a matter is a matter of extreme last because it may be you know this therefore therefore we asking questions about when was the what is the time at which the leage took place so that will give us an idea of what was the opportunity for dissemination the modality there are 56 quick answer quick answer if just one second one second Mr solicitor Mr solicitor one second second one second sir one second just one second everything by one second one more one more thing I want to ask you is that with the kind of technology which we have today at our disposal and the government of India has it cyber forensic unit is it not possible for us to run through the use of experts to bring some sense of confidence to the process uh that you know you you carry out a detailed uh data analytics exercise to see if there are suspicious markers now we have to identify what the suspicious markers are all right so I just want to say one thing let us not be in self-denial absolutely right the you know self-denial is only adding to the problems because now everybody knows there was a leap so let's not we have two three things we have to see what happened for this exam what we do in the ongoing process for the conclusion of this year's admission and finally which is the third aspect of the matter which we'll answer what do we ensure what do we do to ensure that the leak does not take place again in the future or what are the steps we are taken to ensure that you know the dissemination in the future does not result in the leaks that we have uh that we have encountered on the last aspect so subject to hearing you there should be a there should be a sort of a multi-disciplinary committee consisting of the best experts not necessarily only from the government but people who have very wide experience and who are respected across the country because we are you know today we are dealing I don't have to emphasize it we are dealing with the most prestigious of educational admissions every middle class which theas every middle middle class parents aspir the children to go to this nor engineering or you know now uh what are we doing to ensure that these that this will not happen in future and how are we planning to tighten the examinations process is there an audit being conducted by the government on what went wrong in the N that's one aspect what do we do the there a third aspect second aspect assuming that we are not going to cancel the entire exam what do we do between today and the date of missions to identify those who are beneficiaries of the fraud and the first aspect first aspect do we cancel the exam or do we allow the counseling to go through by identifying the beneficiaries and on the first aspect we'd like to know from the government what have you done so far to identify those who are beneficiaries of the I can assure you lot one thing but we are not we are not adversary report of the report of the CBI and police that is most important report of the CBI and the partner police Mr solicitor you know they have from one second from what they are trying to emphasize we find that they they place a great deal of emphasis on the fact that in the uh 2021 2223 you had 1 + 3 + 1 + 2 that is 4 and 1 5 and 2 7 students who got 720 out of 720 in four years this year we have 67 67 who get 720 which will not 6 one one second we have an answer no no I have one more question what is the what one second what is the percentile distribution in this exam across categories not just 720 centers no no no the the distribution of marks is it skewed at the top H in the last year suppose how many were in the bottom third percentile in the middle third percentile in the top third percentile this year is this year in the sense that will give us an indicator was the was the pattern was it a paper leak was the examination pattern comparatively easier as opposed to the previous years we have corre we have done the it I have given that answer last page note the chart I have given that satisfies my Lord's query the marks I have compared given the table somebody in 2022 who obtained 700 marks see this table for a moment that you throw light on my Lord's query uh 222 somebody who obtained 700 marks yes in 2022 his rank was 94 right in 23 somebody 700 his rank was 24 7 then somebody has 700 in 2024 his rank is 2250 he goes down he goes down because there also there is question also there is another aspect one second how many students appeared in 2022 23 and 24 same same same table is showing table is showing it the 56 students that are before total number of all of them are Stoppers kindly see the difference I also there is another aspect to it increase in a very linear fashion my Lord there is another aspect in fact NT has published several answer key my Lord I'd like to point I'd like to I'd also like to point out um some may I say something submission rest all of them have been meritorious have scored highest Mark in class 10 and 12 in in so far as Gujarat is concerned in this 56 people that have come before aot so this is a case where all of us are facing tremendous mental Agony because of this that's all now we can leave leave aside the emotions you can what what we want to know Mr what we want to know is this we will have these you know we'll have these anecdotal uh you know charts like this which are given to us then is there please take instructions from the government can we not run this through a data analytics program with the Cyber forensic unit you can contact if the government has that in the ministry of Home Affairs so much the better if you don't have it you can ask any of our top uh service providers to to to find out because we have to identify a whether the you know whether the the skewing of marks is so systemic that the whole examination is affected or is it possible to identify people who are wrongdoers or likely wrongdoers in which case a retest can be held for those students only I I'd like to make a small submiss atic way but I can assure you about one thing but we are not adversarial to the petitioners either way the petitioners who have an apprehension of an all India problem or petitioners 23 LS in number plus who are feeling insecure because they may have to face another examination but we are concerned about both the sides and we will assist your lot dispassionately then whatever your suggested but I think the solution lies somewhere else what we'd like to do in so far as the petitioners are concerned please all lawyers for the petitioners please we'll take it up on Wednesday give them a day time also wanted one day's time we'll give you a day's time to put your together we want all the lawyers for the petitioners who are asking for a retest who are asking for a retest to sit together between now and Wednesday and give us one set of submissions viation we can't have we can't have people you know 100 lawyers arguing before us on 100 different grounds we want you to all sit down we'll appoint one nodal Council as we do in the CB matters that's right you give us a one Consolidated submission say not exceeding 10 pages you don't mind it should it shouldn't exceed 10 pages why youing for a rep all right for that purpose likewise we'll do this we will ask the government to circulate a comprehensive list of dates and a response to what we have uh what we have uh what we have raised direct everything is with CBI NTA as we have seen in the reply they say we do not know whether it was systemic or not here sometime they completely deny this so let the CBI file a status report before this honorable Court in all six FS that will place the picture that in which direction the investigation is going not all six filation in between subm a status report take instruction for the CBI CBI file the status why don't you do this ask C to file that's the Le has Min on Investigation whether it is or suggestion consider it I'd like to make a small submission my Lord here also in the me only one one request call for the record from the CBI also and because something not public how to place it before Etc can we can I request is our joint request that we file everything as suggested by L by Wednesday and matter can be heard on Thursday so we are not is taken by surprise that what is the document we'll prepare it today file it by day after and we can have that filation which happens in between but the investigating officer is the best person I'm not overall wday he's saying take it up on Thursday they will so you will get 24 hours to study what they are saying and in the metime if just consider one more the entire result of 2 23 LH people we Deed on their website they have not declared that result we will also analyze the data because they declared the result of 100 we could see that six people who secured rank one are from the same Center is De be able to see not comprehensiv on the I'd like to make a small submission you made your point got the same Mark 720 and 720 C CER 720 720 how is it possible my question people in my second question different different how is it possible on the resources answer keys for the same om multiple answer for one single person has been published by the NTA on it website opened up on the 8th of April for enlisting students my Lord on a 24-hour window on the 9th and the 10th of April my and change of answer also they have changed the answer also this is and then the second question that why the has declared the result the four June my Lord question already my Lord three answer keys for a set of question paper how can that how can n publish that n also should be investigated there how many total 1,000 1 L 10,000 approximate % is government how many uh 1 lak 18,000 something is the exact figure 56,000 is the government SE the bundling is on the government so that they can do pr one my my Lord I'd like to make a small submission my Lord my lordship it's my humble dat which is come out will important please comeet status my Lord on VC I may be allowed to make a small submission of 30 seconds which is open on the 9th of ail sir my lordship the portal is opened on 9th April 2024 it's my humble request please give the clear data to find out so that we can my Lord why the window was open on 8th and 9 the reason and what was the result because this is the only difference my Lord identified 15 candidate who are we we we'll now place it on Thursday we'll just give some direction to the matter so we'll be able to focus on what on 9 February 20 24 the national testing agency into brackets NTA issued an online application form for the national eligibility come Entrance Test into brackets neet UGI bracket 2024 stop NT conducted the neat ug examination on 5 May 2024 let's stop results will declared on on 4th June 2024 next May 2024 from the material which is emerged on the record at the present stage comma it appears that on 5 May 2024 the first information report wearing F number 358 stroke 2024 was launched at P shastri nagar Patna alleging a leak in the neat ug 2024 question papers implicating offenses under sections 407 408 and 409 read with section 120b of the Cod let St on 23 June 2024 the economic offenses unit of Bihar police issued a press release Notting where in connection with the above F 13 persons including candidates and members of and into invert commas members of the organized gang of examination leak sorry I should not interrupt this is what I gave to a l this is not uh true that is what the Bihar police on that very de clar where is that de CL I had just my friend wrong this what police CL no no you trying to cover up so this is on that very day published by the Bihar police this is with regard to the news report of NE ug exam published in the Sunday Express Newspaper dated 23rd June on its front page with the headline Bihar police put so this press release is not an official press release no no that's what the be police clarifies on the website kindly read it further for he handed this over to me just in the news item the sign has been wrongly quoted and the name has been mentioned at least three times in the news item by the correspondence so and so whereas the matter of fact is that no such brief had been given by the undersign to him in this regard and neither the concern correspondent ever contacted me before attributing the code to the undersigned no official press release or statement in this matter had been issued this irresponsible Act of corres second according to the petitioners on 23 June 2024 a press release was issued by the economic offenses unit ofar police setting up in regard to the uh paper leak which had taken place the other hand comma from a communication dat 23 June 2024 addressed by the additional DGP economic offenses unit has been stated that no official press release or statement as an act of had been had been issued by the Bihar police what stop be that as it may Comm in this batch of petitions one of the primary reliefs which has been sought is for a court mandated retest the entire process which took place culminating in the examination which was conducted on 5 May 2024 stop in support of the case in support of the of their case the petitioners have relied on primary circumstances first it has been submitted that before that you can just say the neat UGI 2024 examination consisted of multiple choice questions involving a total of 180 questions let's stop the each of the 180 questions carried four marks making for a total of 720 marks for the examination 45 marks each were allotted to the segments in physics chemistry chemistry biolog andology and andology physics chemistry botony and zoology stop the examination in this age the award of negative marks of of of one of one negative Mark per wrong answer uh per wrong answer next in support of The Plea that the court should direct a reexamination the petitioners have primarily relied on two circumstances first it has been submitted that between in in that candidate securing maximum the maximum of 720 months we're confined to a few students if you between 2020 and 2023 in 2020 full stop as opposed to this in the NIT UGI 2024 as many as 67 candidates are reported to have secured maximum of 720 marks the submission can best be highlighted by reproducing the chart which has been placed the PO of the hearing AA comp above chart indicates that while only one that while one student in 2020 three students in 2021 one student in 2022 and two students in 2023 secured the maximum marks there's been a radical increase in the student securing the maximum of 720 marks in 2024 apart from the second submission proceeds on a comparative tabulation of the ranks which would be which were allotted to students in 2022 2023 and 2024 for me for me most important the leag has happened that is the call the second uh the above submission is sought to be highlighted from the following chart above chart indicates that students receiving specific level of marks between 539 and 700 would secured a particular rank in 2022 secured lower ranks in 2023 and a radically lower Mark a radically lower rank in 2024 no no no same marks same level of marks not same student stop next considering weather before that you did say uh it is certain basic facts which are not in dispute need to be alluded to stop about 24 lakh students registered for the neat ug examination which was to be conducted in the month of May 2024 stop about 2333 lakh students correct yes sir appeared for the 23 lakh 33297 students 23 lakh 23,29 students 297 students appeared for the examination the examination was conducted at 4750 centers comprised within 571 cities stop the examination was also held in 14 cities overseas stop the total number of seats medical seats for undergraduate one second I've made a note for undergraduate studies uh is 1.08 lakhs of which approximately 56,000 are seats in government hospitals good stop the investigation primc from tentatively at the present stage the court has been apprised of the fact that the don't say tentatively the court has been apprised of the fact that first information reports were registered in Patna heli Gujarat Rajasthan jar and Maharashtra correct stop uh whether the uh whether the uh whether the uh files in relation to the paper league is only confined to yes or otherwise is a matter which would have to be reserved for a more detailed elaboration detailed consideration on stop the above narration indicates that the examination was conducted over a wide spectrum in prising of nearly 23 three lakh students spread over 4,750 centers in India St before the court can be full stop uh the law on whether a retest should be ordered in a situation such as the present is based on fairly settled parameters the court would have to scrutinize on the basis of the data which has emerged on the record whether colonet one breach in the sanctity of the examination has taken place whether bracket one the alleged breach has taken place at a system at a systemic level or at a systemic level semicolon bracket 2 whether the breach is of a nature which has affected the Integrity of the exam of the entire examinations process and three whether it is possible to segregate beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students stop in a situation where the reach in the sanctity of an examination affects the entirety of the process and it is it is not possible to segregate those who are the beneficiaries of wrongdoing from others comma it may be necessary to order re examination on the other contrary wise where the bre is confined to specific areas of ERS and it is possible to identify those who are beneficiaries of wrongdoing it may not be appropriate to order a retest particularly in an examination which has been conducted on such a massive scale involving over 23 lakh students involving such a large body of students who would have appeared who who have studied for the examination undertaken costs and expenses and would have to undergo the rigur of a fresh examination if it were to be ordered by the court next while flagging these issues while flagging the above issues comma we are of the view that view on the merits would have to be deferred until further facts are placed on the record before this court One Stop the we for that purpose we intend to direct the national testing agency to make a full disclosure uh before the court stop the disclosure which we are intending to require can broadly be classified into three aspects the first aspect pertains to the nature of the leak places where the leak took place and the lag of time between the occurrence of the leak and the conduct of the examination on this on on from this perspective K NTA must nth has directed to clarify on the basis of the material which is in its possession is ofd on following issues record one when the leak of the question papers has first taken place through the manner in which the question papers were leaked or disseminated semicolon braet 3 the duration between the time duration between the occurrence of the leak and the actual conduct of the examination which took place at 2: p.m. between 2 p.m. and 5:20 p.m. on 5 May 2024 uh the second uh uh while while making the uh full stop uh on the above aspect comma we are also of the view that since the investigation has been interested to the CBI comma the status report should be filed by the investigating officer before this quote indicating the status of the the state indicating the the status of the investigation up to date in the material which has come to light during the course of the investigation one one may uh one may when the leak first was first noticed was first noticed the investigating officer shall in particular indicate to this court shall shall place before this court material which has been gathered during the course of the investigation we should have a bearing on when the leak is alleged to have first taken place in the modalities in which Elite question papers were made available stop uh on the second the second perspective the second aspect on which we NTA shall make a disclosure of this God is in regard to the steps which have been taken so far for identification of the beneficiaries of the leag this regard the court would be apprised theia of the following bracket one how many students what were the steps which were taken by NTA to identify the centers stroke cities at which the leak took place to modalities followed or identifying the beneficiaries of the leak and three the number of students who have so far been ID identified to be the beneficiaries of the leaked question papers likewise the investigating officer say TR Authority because identification may not be within hour all right uh the above information I I'll clarify while editing I'll put it so that not it will be more the ministry of Home Affairs or some other the link will be at one place that how many centers the leak paper has been made available because leak will be in the entire system at one point no no we have said we have said the dissemination also we uh the uh investigating officer shall also submit a status report uh bearing on the above aspects yes well third the third aspect uh on which uh it is necessary to have a further Disclosure by the unit government as well as by n we say Union government and N is whether it is possible by the union government and N is whether would be is on whether uh technically feasible yeah whether it would be feasible using the uh using data analytics either within the Cyber forensic unit or any other expert agencies within or which may be employed by the government to identify cases where uh suspect cases would stop for instance these cases may involve uh full stop uh this may be uh if this is possible comma the authori shall uh identify before the court uh the identify the modalities which can be followed uh so as to segregate the tainted from the untainted students the third aspect on which uh we require a disclosure uh is in regard to the modalities to be followed uh between the conclusion of the examination including the retest which was held for 1563 students and the actual uh commencement of the counseling process let stop if uh an exercise is to be conducted by the NTA and by the union government so as to reduce any further beneficiaries of the question paper leakage a considered decision at the policy level would have to be taken by the government on whether counseling should be allowed to proceed in the meantime or otherwise not say that on the status of the council fourthly comma the court is concerned about the steps which should be taken Hereafter uh to ensure the sanctity of the uh of the uh National eligibility come Entrance Test so that such instances which have transpired in course of the present session are not repeated in the future just one second please in this regard it would be necessary for the government to consider setting up uh a multi-disciplinary team consisting of uh renowned experts command The Wider confidence of the community to ensure that newe measures are being taken to new measures are being taken to obate any further reaches in the neat in the future let stop uh if a committee has already been set up by the government for the for for deducing the steps to be taken for the future who details shall be made available to the court stop the court May then consider whether the committee which has been constituted by the government should be allowed to proceed as it is whether the composition of the committee should be uh should be should be uh should be enh sufficiently en toing so as to bring together a pool of talent from diverse Fields bearing not only on Administration but also on domain expertise and data analytics and Lear Council appearing solicitor general appearing for the union of India and Mr K Mr Lear Council appearing for the NTA have requested the court to B the further hearing on Thursday C so as to enable them to make their uh to file the do file the material in persons of the above uh queries by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday full stop the uh the affidavit the the affidavit shall be shared with Council appearing on the on behalf of the petitioners simultaneously the report of the investigating officer of the CBI shall also be placed on the record in the meantime say one aspect you know I'll tell you why let there be the reason why asking for this disclosure whatever view we ultimately take Let There Be confidence in the community that absolutely the entire can in view of the large number of council who are appearing on the side of the petitioners we have requested that we it has been agreed who will be the noal councel independently sometime shall act as noal Council all the council for the petitioners who are desirous of pressing their submission for a d test shall file a common set of submissions not exceeding 10 pages by uh by before the next before the hearing takes place on Thursday thetion on this side Lord can also time of L supported by the I appreciate but I also want to get out the fact that are all cases where why don't you do this why don't you do this give us a short onepage note that will be more very very your lordship said petitioners there are transfer petitions where we are essentially respondents and this is beyond the leak my Lord beyond the leak also yes my Lord there is also Chang the answer also they Chang answer of one question anded the number yes Lord in fact it's happen in my case also where there are three we have not we have not specifically in our order including the red flags iately put it into our order but you can just see whether there are some cases like that which you can identify see so that then uh we have like to have perhaps they are not given copies the other ones who are intervening or ET what we would suggest is what you give us on Thursday you and one more thing what you give us on Thursday make it comprehensive so that we don't have to wait through your counters and everything we just okay look at that basically make one small request we've nowed out we can if we can using whatever technology uh common sense and our understanding of the law identify the wrongdoing students we then don't have to ask 23 lakh students to again appear for the exam if we have no other go of course we there to allow the implment applications for us to file that one page our diary number to be record is that matter neat matter right yes there are three other matters which we have to take Diary Number made all right any other fresh matters on neat which were not on board after you can give the matter numbers to the court Master he bring them on board one more thing Mr solister uh has everybody served their petitions on thec but we have not right rep my not all right one second the council appearing for all the petitioners stroke counil appearing for all the petitioners stroke interveners Shall Serve copies of whom should we say Central MK maror on on MK Mara and Mr and mran Kosik Council appearing counil instructing the solicit general and Mr Kosik RC Kosik respectively okay uh the uh the two Council appearing on behalf of the uh rep the two Council Mr maror and Mr the union of India and the NTA shall prepare a tabulated statement uh indicating for each petition tabulated statement grouping the petitions into distinct categories so as to facilitate disposal so what you can do is those which are which are which which are asking for a retest you can put in one category then idual uh grievances then we'll see what whether those grievances can be entertained whether we ask you to look into it what to do but we'll have one tabulated chart on EAS just request one intelligence that's why we said therefore you serve a copy on the they change the answer also they have answer and given more 13,000 student problem for ranking is concerned but look this is nothing therefore those petitions we may have to dealing they are individual petitions those are individual petitions where you say you have a medical condition you should have been given extra time we'll deal with it separately it does not deal with the sanctity of the examination that's individual students order should not be deemed to be as restricting only to the case of leak because between the not at all in fact that's why we finally said this for the reason my lords on the 8th while the exam was announced for the fifth my lords of May on the 8th of April overnight my lords they brought about a notification that there will be a window open for students who could not register for the exam way back on 16th of March so this window that they opened by is absolutely difficult to understand so more students registered 25,000 item for one second of look students registering Etc how can we suspect because the initial advertisement we hear you we'll hear you on that we you the entire result the entire comprehensive result should be put on the website right now what's happening is individual results only are put up so somebody has to go so we can't Mr Kik Mr Kosik the entire result except for those which you have we will say that these results shall not give any give rise to any equities or legal rights but you must at least now approve the result yes the entire results the result comprehensive the data science can work here the revised result of 1563 and the rest of the persons all has been uploaded on 30th individually individually but do you haveed so that is why we can't use data science that's the problem if they they are deliberately keeping under WS no this would your lotes may take a call on that on Thursday but there is something has also of the also looked at they found it as a matter of fact that it was being the sold question paper was received by this gang on mobile phone on the morning of 5th of May where do we get that yes it is it is there let me let me come back to at page 292 of my second paragraph uh uh yes this this second paragraph at page 292 allow me to read that it says it was received on mobile phone by this Guang when were they received uh they here they say 5th of May 20124 in the morning and the students were made in groups were made to memorize the answers to these questions this is what the finding is as a matter of fact we have a video which was shown to me it's a uh telegram uh channel channel where it has been recorded which is on 4th of May the question paper and answers were being circulated on a telegram Channel this has been captured the date and the telegram Channel we have and the questions have m is the same question when were the question papers lodged in the locker what they will be able to tell me when were the question papers sent to the locker five six days prior to the specific date specific date and second when were they pulled out of the locker two lockers right State Bank of India and can Bank minutes now when were they pulled out to the locker on the date of the exam that is on 5th minutes not only the date which is Rel the time the reference what time was the examination held fth minutes time was it the 520 3 hours 20 minutes now what time were they pulled out to the locker on the fifth around minutes 10:30 11 now at how many centers in India were the was the exam conducted in India 4,750 minutes 4,750 centers how many right how many cities 5 now please give us specific 571 and 15 centers were abroad minutes 571 cities yes mes and how many centers abroad 14 minutes 14 cities 14 cities Cent now tell us uh how many students appear totally 24 lakhs around minutes around 24 minutes you have the precise figure 23 lakh 7 I'll give you in 23 lakh 33297 he against registration of 24 lakhs and plus 72,000 students Ms did not take the exam spite registration now uh how were the papers distributed abroad they were sent and when were they sent abroad the embassies through the embassies and how are they sent to the embassies get dets were they sent by The Diplomatic bag were they sent by ker I'll find out and pleas on record and second if the uh now there were the the the the exam was held in as many as 4750 centers yes in 571 cities yes ma right yes ma' now uh when you say that the two booklets we'll call them yes A and B set a and set B yes uh they were sent to these cities when were they sent to these cities yes pleas when were they sent to the approximately about we don't want tell us the precise I'll get the exact dates when they and how were they sent to those cities yes I'll get the dates bear police and was and were they lodged in the State Bank and Canada Bank in each of these cities or what happened each of the Cities they are lodged with the custodians who are KRA bank and State Bank so we want to know on what date were the question papers sent where were they when were they when the question papers were prepared yes right question papers are prepared by one person or more than one person group of experts question papers are prepared at the headquarters where are the headquarters Delhi in Delhi so two sets are prepared by two different groups or one group the same one second one second the same group of experts need two different sets of question at the headquarters yes after they have prepared they given to the NTA yes right now tell us tell us when when did the group of persons conduct the prepare the question papers and give you the question dates I I'll get the DAT right we want to know what was the date on which these question papers were prepared and given to you point one yes after they were received by NTA in what custody they were preserved when did NTA send them to the State Bank of India and Canada Bank into different cities in between printing is there printing presses when are they sent to the printing press which is a printing press yes we will get the details we want to know which is the printing press yes when did you send these question papers to the printing press yes ma'am what were the transportation arrangements made for sending them to the printing press yes when did the printing press after the printing press them we now talking of 23 we 24 lakhs 50 lakh sets yes right because 24 lakh had how many sets were printed correct and after they were printed where were they sent are they sent back to the headquarters at Delhi yes please huh the the remaining sheets unutilized ones no no after the question paper is set it is sent for printing yes you have a printing press a yes you need not tell us where the printing press is otherwise next they will be they will go to that now it is sent to that printing press yes right how is it sent to the printing press under what custody yes second after they are printed how do the printing how do the printing spress send it back to NTA between that date and give us that date how many days had elapsed between that and the distribution of the question question papers to these 471 cities and 4750 centers the entire movement PL are prepare a ATT starting from the preparation of the question paper see I'll tell you why we are asking I if we come to the conclusion that the time lag between the leak and the actual date of the examination is relatively limited yes then that would be a circumstance which would militate against holding a retest not if the time lag between the leak and the actual examination brother Mish actually mention is is wider then there's a greater chance that the Malay is across the system I get it I'll get if if it appears that the question papers were leaked on the morning of the 5th exam was scheduled at 2:00 students were made to memorize the questions that may be one indicator that the leak was not as widespread somebody who has the question paper is not going to ask student to sit down and memorize them and give on the spot memorize them how many answers can a student memorize there are two aspects therefore we we have to have some clarity on facts for us to understand whether this is so systemic that we must order our see there are two or three considerations which way one if the if the sanctity of the examination has been lost then a retest has to be ordered right yeah if we are not able to identify students who are candidates who are guilty of wrongdoing a r test has to be ordered if you can't distinguish the grain from the chef that is the tainted from the untainted a test has to be ordered on the other hand right on the other hand on the other hand we are dealing with now a situation of 23 lakh students may be farfetch for us to at least presume unless they point out material to us that all 23 lakh students or a substantial number of them are involved in the fraud for what we know a large number of students maybe just honest students who have appeared for the exam LGE number we have to but we have to see we have to see if you know second what was the modality one more very important aspect what was the modality in which the leak was detected if sorry if the leak took place if the modality of the leak is through electronic means social media then there is a possibility the leak is extremely that is the point said is all correct media you know we are flagging these issues we want you to therefore give us a comprehensive analysis of dates certainly because if the leak is taking place through say telegram if it is taken through WhatsApp that happen you know because if it's through social media or any electronic means of communication like wildfire on the other hand we must also balance it out about the time at which the leak takes place if it's more or less in the morning of the 5th then the time between when the leak takes place and the students have to go for the examination very limited on is a hard decision one more thing in which we require some assistance from both Sid please don't treat it as an adversary litigation the reason for the reason one second for the reason that whatever view we ultimately take this view is impacting the lives of 20 second right second second we want to understand is it possible for the court to identify red flags right so can we identify either we do it or we appoint an expert committee to identify the red flags I'll give you some examples of red flags 720 out of 720 all every everybody out who's get 720 is not a fraud star there may be still people who are extraordinarily bright that 720 out of 720 but we found that for the previous years the proportion was very low now this year suddenly it goes up to 67 how many out of those 720 are people from that 1563 who are beneficiaries of the added Grace Mark we have given the details in our count 81 no we just want you to now put it down on a piece of paper for us uh second second we want to understand this so a change in a change in centers is possible Right a change in centers is possible suppose a student I was just telling my brothers at lunch suppose a student is registered at lnno suddenly you find that student has gone from lnno to a distant centery and gets very and gets the 720 somebody registered at Amad and suddenly goes to air so that may be one that may be one example consider so we can you know we will have to do some if we have to sh separate the grain from the Sha we will have to identify certain red flags that those who fall in that red flag category we may have to then hold a limited retest for that category alone second is it possible to do using the Cyber forensic unit of say the uh Ministry of Home Affairs or whatever is it possible to do a data analytics on the on the entire result and to identify now there may be one category I was thinking you know when we were reflecting on this matter students who get exceptionally High marks in the in the need but whose performance refed in the 12th but there again but there again I'll tell you one thing one second again there is a there's a problem students don't study as hard for the 12th as they study for the only one one figure another another red flag another red flag another red flag a student get exceptionally High marks in one in one one faculty of science like say physics or chemistry right but gets five marks in the others so you know because it may be unlikely that a student who is doing so brilliantly in one would not have studied at at all for the other faculty so the only point is that you know I'm not sure whether we should be doing this or whether these but they have not declared the entire result also as brother Mishra says the full marks have a pattern we also I wanted to answer that we also want to understand we also want to understand the the pattern of meat itself well the pattern quickly only 45 questions on physics 45 questions on chemistry 45 on zoology and botony to totally 180 four marks so 45 questions on physics 45 on chemistry 45 on math on botony and 45 on zology so 45 times of 4 that is 180 180 into 4 720 right if you if you get a wrong answer minus one so therefore if you had uh given one 79 right uh right answers your score would have been 720 minus 5 that is 715 here there have been answers scores of 718 79 mathematically impossible because you lose four answer was that it is because of the grace marks to ret give me two minutes give me two minutes submission something will just some figures which are handy and that might answer I'm oblig L's question it's a very perent question we examine the pattern of 100 top ranking students those who were in the first 100 that analysis comes that they were distributed amongst 95 centers in 56 cities in 18 states or union territories the top 100 the top 100 huh they are found they appeared in 95 centers located in 56 cities which are spread out in 18 states or Union and my Lord one second one second now page 86 of my reply page 37 is the one more thing which we want to know now is that how many fi have been matter has been handed over to CBI for investigation I I'll just tell you uh totally how many FS have been registered one F paper leak in Pat rest M are FS for some local practice how many totally FS have been registered according to knowledge is not can you give us tomorrow maybe but'll second we want to know now one thing is very clear that the leak has taken place in yes in one sent no whether one Center we that's what we have to decide we the fact that the s that the sanctity of the examination compromis is now compromised is beyond doubt that there has been a yes yes I'm I'm sorry now question is Mr solicor how widespread is that breach also the paper leak is not an admitted fact but my learning friend relied upon that PR not kind of a thing no an admitted fact but can we deny the fact that a leak of question yes yes yes the the complete complete cover ad police biar police on that very day on which some news reporting came which my leared friend we issued this PR that this is false is not our briefing to the media no but is the case of NTA today that there is no leak ad ad Mr Mr Kik we take it that it's an admitted fact that there is a leak there is no question about it you know the nature of the leak is what we are determining yes we are asking question the fact that there was a leakage of question papers is an is is cannot be disputed now what is the concept sequence of that LE would depend upon the extensive nature of that leap if it Le or uncontained you don't I tell you one thing you don't cancel a whole examination merely because two students have committed a malpractice likewise assuming that there is a leak we don't live in an Ideal World there should be no leak but before we decide to order a leak a e test we must be we must be care we must be careful about what is the nature of that leak because we are conscious of the fact that we are dealing with the careers of 23 LH absolutely right abely asking look asking 23 lakh students to reappear for an examination together with the preparation cost travel and dislocation of admission schedules there is Choice unfortunately there is no choice has been leaked now therefore we want to know this therefore we would like to know first the entire process which to what is the what is the nature of the fs which have which have come forth when how was the leak what what is the point of time at which the leak took place how was the leak disseminated these are important question and next very important what is the what are the what are the actions what are the actions which the government of India and NTA have taken identify the wrongdoings students are the beneficiaries of the wronging someone come first I'd like to make I'd like to make submission I'm in 31.9 my Lord e we have understood your lot's question they a very pertinent question and that would ultimately lead but I one one second Mr s we also want to know what is the what are the steps which have been taken by the NTA and by the government to identify the beneficiaries of the leaks because that we have to we have to go with we have to be ruthless on identifying the beneficiaries we also have to be ruthless because anybody who has breached the examination is not entitled to be there as a successful those who are identified their results are but give me an example how many we want to know how many have been identified but more than how many have been identified we want to know what was the course of action which was taken by the government kindly allow me to give an example for the time being leave biar I'll call the police also I take instructions take for example gdra gdra inent it passes on as a paper leak case it's not a paper leak case what happened was there was one superintendent of one particular Center called J J jalaram School his name is Tushar but he arranged with certain students that he didn't have the paper but he said that whatever answers you can confidently answer you give the answers these are multiple choice questions with negative marking and therefore I would have a window of 3 hours before uh after I take your papers back and I se it and send it to the concern Authority fortunately the authorities the district magistrate came to know about this it must have percolated from somewhere therefore the moment examination started the entire District administration and entire police Administration was there the papers after the examination were taken in their custody sealed in their presence and sent and that man was arrested now from his mobile there were several video chats which were found and we could identify that these were the people who with whom he was in touch so those identified students their papers are uh the their results are with and they are issued soos notices why should they not be we want to know totally but what concerned about PNA is leakage we are not complaining I'm only about paper leakage nothing else all of are minor issues issues nobody would ask for nobody would ask for the examination overall in the entire country how many students whose uh whose results have been withheld uh o to what is we are what we are discussing today individual one student cheating from another student we are not bothered about absolutely that the law will take its own course yes how many students are there whose results have been withheld as a result of the systemic uh so we won't say systemic as a result of the leakage so and and where are those students situated you want to see the graphical distribution of those students are they in one state are they in multiple states where are they situated and and third now one more thing which we'd like to also dwell on is uh the following Justice the order passed by the bench prided over by honorable J Vikram in the in the vacation 1563 students there was a retest that was held on the 23rd of June or 21st of June 23rd of June it has been now one second one second one second just just tell us for this examination now are we still in the process of identifying the wrong of the wrongdoers in terms of the students we're not talking of those who are perpetrators but beneficiaries have we been able to completely identify the students who are the beneficiaries or is that process still going answer is no for instance for instance for instance one second for instance look if we have no go if we have no go we'll have to cancel the exam there has been no effort whatever on that side as a court yes this cancellation of a test of this nature 24 lakh students completely agre is a matter is a matter of extreme last we saw because it may be you know right therefore therefore we asking questions about when was the what was the time at which the leage took so that will give us an idea of what was the opportunity for dissemination there are 56 quick answer quick answer if just one second one second Mr solicitor Mr solicor one second second one second sir one second just one second everything by after one second one more one more thing I want to ask you is that with the kind of technology which we have today at our disposal and the government of India has it cyber forensic unit is it not possible for us to run through the use of experts to bring some sense of confidence to the process uh that you know you you carry out a detailed uh data analytics exercise to see if there are suspicious markers now we have to identify what the suspicious markers are all right so I just want to say one thing let us not be in self-denial absolutely right the you know self-denial is only adding to the problems because now everybody knows there was a Le so let's not we have two or three things we have to see what happened for this exam what we do in the ongoing process for the conclusion of this year's admission and finally which is the third aspect of the matter which we'll answer what do we ensure what do we do to ensure that the leak does not take place again in the future or what are the steps we are taken to ensure that you know the dissemination in the future does not result in the leaks that we have uh that we have encountered on the last aspect subject to hearing you there should be a there should be a sort of a multi-disciplinary committee consisting of the best experts not necessarily only from the government but people who have very wide experience and who are respect across the country because we are you know today we are dealing I don't have to emphasize it we are dealing with the most prestigious of Education admissions every middle class par which the every middle middle class parents aspires the children to go to medicine or engineering or you know now uh what are we doing to ensure that these F that this will not happen in future and how are we planning to tighten the examinations process is there an audit being conducted by the government on what went wrong in the NTA that's one aspect what do we do there a third aspect second aspect assuming that we are not going to cancel the entire exam what do we do between today and the date of admissions to identify those who are beneficiaries of the fraud and the first aspect first aspect do we cancel the exam or do we allow the counseling to go through by identifying the beneficiaries and on the first aspect we'd like to know from the government what have you done so far to identify those who are beneficiaries of the I can assure you lot one thing but we are not we are not adversary report the yes report of the CB and police that is most important report of the CBI and the P police Mr solicitor you know they have from one second from what they are trying to emphasize we find that they they place a great deal of emphasis on the fact that in the uh 2021 22 23 you had 1 + 3 + 1 + 2 that is 4 and 1 5 and 2 7 students who got 720 out of 720 in 4 years this year we have 67 67 who get 720 which 6 one second we have an answer no no I have one more question what is the what one second what is the percentile distribution in this exam across categories not just 720 centers no no no the the distribution of marks is it skewed at the top in the last year suppose how many were in the bottom third percentile in the middle third percentile in the top third percentile this year is this year in the sense that will give us an indicator was the was the pattern was it a paper leak was the examination pattern comparatively easier as opposed to the previous years we have correct we have done the Anis we place it have given that answer note the chart I have given that satisfies my Lord's query the uh marks I have compared given the table somebody in 2022 who obtained 700 marks see this table for that will throw light on my Lord's quy uh 222 somebody who obtained 700 marks yes in 2022 his rank was 94 right in 23 somebody 700 his rank was 247 then somebody has 700 in 2024 his rank is 2,250 he goes down go down because there also there question also there is another aspect one second how many students appeared in 2022 23 and 24 same same same T is showing itable is showing it the 56 students that are number Stoppers kindly see the difference I also there is another aspect to it increase in a very linear fashion by there is another aspect to it in fact n has published several answer key my Lord I'd like to point H Lord I'd like to I'd also like to point out um some may I say something6 submission rest all of them have been meritorious have scored highest Mark in class 10 and 12 in in so far as Gujarat is concerned in this 56 people that have come before aot so this is a case where all of us are facing tremendous mental Agony because of this that's all now we can leave Al leave aside the emotions you can TR what what we want to know Mr what we want to know is this we will have these you know we'll have these anecdotal uh you know charts like this which are given to us can is there please take instructions from the government can we not run this through a data analytics program with the Cyber forensic Unity you can contact if the government has that in the ministry of Home Affairs so much the better if you don't have it you can ask any of our top uh service providers to to to find out because we have to identify a whether the you know whether these the skewing of marks is so systemic that the whole examination is affected or is it possible to identify people who are wrongdoers or likely wrongdoers in which case a retest can be held for those students only I'd like to make a small sub but I can assure you about one thing but we are not adversarial to the petitioners either way the petitioners who have an apprehension of an all- India problem or petitioners 23 LS in number plus who are feeling insecure because they may have to face another examination but we are concerned about both the sides and we will assist your L dispassionately then whatever your suggested I think the solution lies somewhere else what we'd like to do in so far as the petitioners are concerned please all lawyers for the petitioners please we'll take it up on Wednesday give them a day also wanted one day's time we'll give you a day's time to put your together we want all the lawyers for the petitioners who are asking for a retest who are asking for a retest to sit together between now and Wednesday and give us one set of submissions viation we can't have we can't have people you know 100 lawyers arguing before us on 100 different grounds we want you to all sit down we'll appoint one noal Council as we do in the CB matters you give us a one Consolidated submission say not exceeding 10 pages you don't mind it should it shouldn't exceed 10 pages why youing for a ref all right for that purpose likewise we'll do this we will ask the government to circulate a comprehensive list of dates and a response to what we have uh what we have uh what we have raised CBI directed not everything is with CBI NTA as we have seen in the reply they say we do not know whether it was systemic or not here sometime they completely deny this so let the CBI file a status report before this honorable Court in all six FS that will place the picture that in which direction the investigation is going all filteration in between submit a status report take instructions froming for the CBI also Mr let a CBI file the status why don't you do this ask C to file the Le has on Investigation whether it isem or whether suggestion consider it I'd like to make a small submission my Lord here also time only one one request I call for the record from the CBI also and because something public how to place it before Etc can can I request this is our joint request that we file everything as suggested by L by Wednesday and matter can be heard on Thursday so we are not nobody is taken by surprise that what is the document we'll prepare it today file it by day after and we can have that filteration which happens in between the investigating officer is the best person I'm not overall he's saying take it up on Thursday they will so you will get 24 hours to study what they are saying and in the metime if just consider one more the entire result of 2 23 LH people be declared on their website they not declar that result we will also analyze the data because they declared the result of 100 we we could see that six people who secured rank one are from the same Center is declared be able to not comprehens on the I'd like to make a small submission you made your got the same 720 720 how is it possible my question is that people Center in all sh different result is different how is it possible keys for same om multiple answer keys for has been published by the NTA on it website opened up on the 8th of April for enlisting students M on a 24-hour window on the 9th and the 10th of April M and CH of also they have ch the answer also this is and then the second question that why the has declared the result the four June my Lord question already my Lord three answer keys for the same set of question paper how can that how can NTA publish that n also should be investigated are there how many total 1,000 1 lak 10,000 approximately % is government how many lak 18,000 something is the exact figure 56,000 is the government buling is on the government so that they can do private one more my Lord I'd like to make a small submission my Lord my lord it's my humble request data which is come out it will be important this please come out sheet status my Lord on VC I may be allowed to make a small submission of 30 seconds which is open on the 9th of 9 April sir my lordship the portal is opened on 9th April 2024 it's my humble request please give the clear data to find out so that we can my why the window was open on 8th and 9th what was the reason sir and what was the result because this is the only difference my Lord identified 15 candidate who are something and we we we'll now place it on Thursday we'll just give some direction to the matter so we'll be able to focus on what we want on 9 February 20 24 the national testing agency into brackets NTA issued an online application form for the national eligibility come Entrance Test into brackets neet ug braet 2024 stop NT conducted the neat ug examination on 5 May 20124 let's stop results were declar on on 4th June 2024 next on 5 May 2024 from the material which is emerged on the record at the present stage comma it appears that on 5 May 2024 the first information report wearing F number 358 stroke 20124 was launched at P shastri nagar Patna alleging a leak in the neit ug 2024 question papers ating offenses under sections 407 408 and 409 read with section 120b of the Cod St on 23 June 2024 the economic offenses unit of Bihar police issued a press release Notting that in connection with the above F 13 persons including candidates and members of and into invert commas members of the organized gang of examination leak but I'm sorry I should not interrupt this is what I gave to a l this is not uh true that is what the biar police on that very de CL where is that CL I had just my friend is wrong this what police no no you trying to cover up this is on that very day published M by the Bihar police this is with regard to the news report of n ug exam published in the Sunday Express Newspaper dated 23rd June on its front page with the headline Bihar police puts press release is not an official press release no no that's what the be police clarifies ons read it further forar he handed this over to me just in the news item the undersigned has been wrongly quoted and the name has been mentioned at least three times in the news item by the corresponden so and so whereas the matter of fact is that no such brief had been given by the undersign to him in this regard and neither the concern correspondent ever contacted me before attributing the court to the undersign no official press release or statement in this matter had been issued this irresponsible Act of correspond second according to the petitioners on 23 June 20124 a press release was issued by the economic offenses unit police setting out in regard to the paper leak which had taken place the other hand comma from a communication dat 23 June 2024 addressed by the additional DGP economic offenses unit been stated that no official press release or statement that's an act of had been had been issued by the biar police stop that as it may comma in this batch of petitions one of the primary reliefs which has been sought is for a court mandate retest the entire process which took place culminating in the examination which was conducted on 5 May 2024 stop in support of the case in support of the of their case the petitioners have relied on the primary circumstances first it has been submitted that before that you can just say the neat UGI 2024 examination consisted of multiple choice questions involving a total of 180 questions let's stop the each of the 180 questions carried four marks making for a total of 720 marks for the examination 45 marks each were allotted to the segments in physics chemistry chemistry andology andology physics chemistry botony and zoology stop the examination in this agage the award of negative marks of of of one of one negative Mark per wrong answer uh per wrong answer next in support of The Plea that the court should direct a reexamination the petitioners have primarily relied on on two circumstances first it has been submitted that between in in that candidate securing maximum the maximum of 720 marks we confined to a few students a few between 2020 and 2023 in 2020 full stop as opposed to this in the N UGI 2024 as many as 67 candidates are reported to have secured maximum of 720 marks the submission can best be highlighted by reproducing the chart which has been placed during the PA of the hearing AA comp above chart indicates that while only once that while one student in 2020 three students in 2021 one student in 2022 and two students in 2023 secured the maximum marks there's been a radical increase in the student securing the maximum of 720 marks in 2024 apart from the second submission proceeds on a comparative tabulation of the ranks which would be which were allotted to students in 2022 2023 and 2024 for me for me most important the league has happened that is the call uh the second uh the above submission is sought to be highlighted from the following chart above chart indicates that students receiving specific level of marks between 539 and 700 what secured a particular rank in 2022 secured lower ranks in 2023 and a radically lower Mar a radically lower rank in 20124 no no no same marks same level of marks not same student stop next considering weather before that you can say uh it is certain basic facts which are not in dispute need to be alluded to stop about 24 lakh students registered for the neat ug examination which was to be conducted in the month of May 2024 stop about 20 3.33 lakh students correct yes sir appeared for the 23 lakh 33297 students 23h 23,29 students 297 students appeared for the examination the examination was conducted at 4750 centers comprised within 571 cities One Stop the examination was also held in 14 cities overseas stop the total number of seats medical seats for undergraduate one second I've made a note for undergraduate studies uh is 1.08 lakhs of which approximately 56,000 are seats in government hospitals good stop the investigation Prim from tentatively at the present stage the court has been apprised of the fact that the don't say tentatively the court has been apprised of the fact that first information reports were registered in Patna Gujarat Rajasthan jaran and Maharashtra correct let stop uh whether the uh uh whether the uh whether the uh files in relation to the paper leak is only confined to yes or otherwise is a matter which would have to be reserved for a more detailed elaboration detailed consideration on stop the above narration indicates that the examination was conducted over a white spectrum comprising of nearly 23 lakh students spread over 4,750 centers in India good Stu before the court can be full stop uh the law on weather a retest should be ordered in a situation such as the present is based on fairly settled parameters let the court would have to scrutinize on the basis of the data which has emerged on the record whether colon one breach in the sanctity of the examination has taken place WEA bracket one the alleged breach has taken place at a system at a systemic level or at a systemic level semicolon bracket two whether the breach is of a nature which has affected the Integrity of the exam of the entire examinations process and three whether it is possible to segregate beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students stop in a situation where the reach in the sanctity of an examination affects the entirety of the process and it is it is not possible to segregate those who are the beneficiaries of wrongdoing from others comma it may be necessary to order any examination on the other contrary wise where the breach is confined to specific areas or centers and it is possible to identify those who are beneficiaries of wrongdoing it may not be appropriate to order a retest particularly in an examination which has been conducted on such a massive scale involving over 23 lakh students involving such a large body of students who would have appeared who who have studied for the examination undertaken costs and expenses and would have to undergo the rigur of a fresh examination if it were to be ordered by the court next while flagging these issues while flagging the above issues comma we are of the view that view on the merits would have to be deferred until further facts are placed on the record before this court One Stop the we for that purpose we intend to direct the national testing agency to make a full disclosure uh before the court let stop the disclosure which we are intending to require can broadly be classified into three aspects the first aspect pertains to the nature the leak places where the leak took place and the lag of time between the occurrence of the leak and the conduct of the examination and this on on from this perspective comma NTA must is directed to clarify on the basis of the material which is in its possession is ofate on following issues record one when the leak of the question papers has first taken place to the manner in which the question papers were leaked or disseminated semicolon braet 3 the duration between the time duration between the occurrence of the leak and the actual conduct of the exam ation which took place at 2 p.m. between 2: p.m. and 5:20 p.m. on 5 May 20024 the second uh uh while while making the uh full stop uh on the above aspect comma we are also of the view that since the investigation has been interested to the CBI comma the status report should be filed by the investigating officer before this court indicating the status of the there St indicating the the status of the investigation up to date and the material which has come to light during the course of the investigation one one may uh one may when the Le first was first noticed was first noticed the investigating officer shall in particular indicate to this court shall shall place before this court material which has been gathered during the course of the investigation which would have a bearing on when the leak is alleged to have first taken place in the modalities in which the leak question papers were made available stop uh on the second the second perspective the second aspect on which we NTA shall make a disclosure of this code is in regard to the steps which have been taken so far for identification of the beneficiaries of the link regard the court would be apprised deria of the following bracket one how many students what were the steps which were taken by NTA to identify the centers stroke cities at which the leite took place to modalities followed for identifying the beneficiaries of the leak and three the number of students who have so far been identified to be the beneficiaries of the leaked question papers likewise the investigating officer say a Str Authority because I identification may not be within hour all right uh the above information I I'll clarify while editing I'll put it it will be more the ministry of Home Affairs or some other the leak will be at one place at how many centers the leak paper has been made available because will be in the enti at no no we have said we have said the dissemination also we have said uh the uh investigating officer shall also submit a status report bearing on the above aspects yes well third the third aspect uh on which uh it is necessary to have a further Disclosure by the union government as well as by n we say Union government and N is whether it is possible by the union government and N is whether would be is is is on whether uh technically visible yeah whether it would be feasible using the uh using data analytics either within the Cyber forensic unit or any other expert agencies within or which may be employed by the government to identify cases where uh suspect cases will stop for instance these cases may involve uh full stop uh this may be uh if this is possible comma the authori shall uh identify before the court uh the identify the modalities which can be followed uh so as to segregate the tainted from the untainted students the third aspect on which uh we require disclosure uh is in regard to the modalities to be followed uh between the conclusion of the examination including the retest which was held for 1563 students and the actual uh commencement of the counseling process stop if uh an exercise is to be conducted by the NTA and by the union government so as to reduce any further beneficiaries of the question paper leakage a considered decision at the policy level would have to be taken by the government on whether counseling should be to proceed in the meantime or otherwise not say that on the status of the council fourthly the court is concerned about the steps which should be taken Hereafter uh to ensure the sanctity of the uh of the uh National eligibility come Entrance Test uh so that such instances which have transpired during the course of the present session are not repeated in the future this just one second please in this regard it would be necessary for the government to consider setting up uh a multi-disciplinary team consisting of uh renowned experts command The Wider confidence of the community to ensure that due measures are being taken to new measures are being taken to obate any further reaches in the need in the future let stop uh if a committee has already been set up by the government for the for for deducing the steps to be taken for the future full details shall be made available to the court stop the court May then consider whether the committee which has been constituted by the government should be allowed to proceed as it is whether the composition of the committee should be uh should be should be uh should be enh en to bring so as to bring together a pool of talent from diverse Fields bearing not only on Administration but also on domain expertise and data analytics Mr Kosik Lear Council appearing solicitor general appearing for the union of India and Mr Kos Mr Kosik learn sen Council appearing for the NTA I've uh requested the court to B the further hearing on Thursday C so as to enable them to make their uh to file the do file the material in persons of the above uh queries by 5: p.m. on Wednesday po stop the uh the affidavit the the affidavit shall be shared with Council appearing on the on behalf of the petitioners simultaneously the report of the investigating officer of the CBI shall also be placed on the record in the meantime may I only say one aspect you know I'll tell you why let there the reason why we asking for this disclosure whatever view we ultimately take Let There Be confidence in the community that absolutely in view of the large number of council who are appearing on the side of the petitioners we have requested that we it has been agreed who will be the noal council sir independently sometime right noal Council all the council for the petitioners who are desirous of pressing their submission for a d test shall file a common set of submissions not exceeding 10 pages by uh by before the next before the hearing takes place on Thursday allow thetion on this side also supported by the I appreciate but I also want to get out the fact we all cases where why don't you do this why don't you do this give us a short onepage note that will be more very very very very whenever your lordship said petitioners there are transfer petitions where we are essentially respondents and this is beyond the leak my Lord beyond the leak also yes my Lord there is also CH the answer also CH answer one question and the number yes Lord in fact it's happen in my case also where there are three we have not we have not specifically in our order including the red plags you iately put it into our order but you can just see whether there are some cases like that which you can identify see so that then uh we have like perhaps they are not given copies the other ones who are intervening or Etc what we would suggest is what you give us on on Thursday you and one more thing what you give us on Thursday make it comprehensive so that we don't have to wait through your counters and everything we just okay look at that basically make one small request we if we can if we can using whatever technology uh common sense and our understanding of the law identify the wrongdoing students we then don't have to ask 23 lakh students to again appear for the exam if we have no other go of course we there to allow the implment applications for us to file that one page our diary number to be record is that matter NE matter right yes there are three other matters which we have to take number made not all right any other fresh matters on neat which were not on board yes after can give the matter numbers to the court Master he'll bring them on board my the one more thing Mr Sol has everybody served their petitions on the but we have not replies all right once again the council appearing for all the petitioners stroke Council appearing for all the petitioners stroke interveners Shall Serve copies on whom should we say Central MK Mar on on MK marua and Mr and Mr vaman Kosik Council apping Council instructing the solicit general and Mr Kosik RC Kosik respectively uh the uh the two Council appearing on behalf of the uh rep the two Council Mr Maria and Mr the union of India and the NTA shall prepare a tabulated statement uh indicating for each petition uh tabulated statement grouping the petitions into distinct categories so as to facilitate disposal so what you can do is those which are which are which which are asking for a retest you can put in one category then individual uh grievances then we'll see what whether those grievances can be entertained whether we ask you to look into it what to do but we'll have one tabulated chart EAS just request one intelligence that's why we said therefore you serve a copy on the they have changed answer also they have changed answer of and given more 1,000 student problem for ranking is concerned but look this is nothing therefore those petitions you may have to dealing they are individual petitions those are individual petitions where you say you have a medical condition you should have been given extra time we'll deal with it separately it does not deal with the sanctity of the examination that's individual students place order should not be deemed to be as restricting only to the case of leak because between the not at all in fact that's why we finally said this for the Reason by on the eth while the examp was announced for the fifth my lords of May on the 8th of April overnight my lords they brought about a notification that there will be a window open for students who could not register for the exam way back on 16th of March so this window that they opened by is absolutely difficult to so more students registered 25,000 item for one second of look more students registering Etc how can we suspect because the initial advertisement we hear you we'll hear you on that we hear you the entire result the entire comprehensive result should be put on the website right now what's happening is individual results only are put up so somebody has to go so we can't Mr Kik Mr Kosik the entire result except for those which you have we will say that these results shall not give any give rise to any equities or legal rights but you must at least now appr the result yes the entire results result comprehensive the data science can work here the revised result of 1563 and the rest of the persons all has been uploaded on 30th no individually individually but do you have so that is why we can't use data science that's the problem if they they are deliberately keeping under RS this would your lotes may take a call on that on Thursday but there is something uh of the also looked at they found it as a matter of fact that it was being the sold question paper was received by this gang on mobile phone on the morning of 5th of May where do we get that yes it is it is there let me let me come back to at page 2 92 of my second paragraph uh yes this this second paragraph at page 292 allow me to read that says it was received on mobile phone by this gang when were they received uh they here they say 5th of May 2024 in the morning and the students were made in groups were made to memorize the answers to these questions this is what the finding is as a matter of fact we have a video which was shown to me it's a uh telegram uh channel uh Channel where uh it has been recorded which is on 4th of May the question paper and answers were being circulated on a telegram Channel this has been captured the date and the telegram Channel we have and the questions have been M the same question when were the question papers uh lodged in the locker what they will be able to tell you when were the question papers sent to the locker five six days prior to the specific date specific date and second when were they pulled out of the locker two lockers right State Bank of India and can Bank bank now when were they pulled out of the Locker on the date of the exam that is on 5th minutes not only the date which is relevant the time the the reference what time was the examination held fth fth what time was it in the 2:00:00 520 3 hours 20 minutes now what what time were they pulled out of the Locker on the fifth around minutes 10:30 11: now at how many centers in India were the was the exam conducted in India 4,750 minutes 4,750 centers how many right how many cities 5 now please give us specific 571 and 15 centers were abroad minutes 571 cities yes mes and how many centers abroad 14 minutes 14 cities 14 cities centers now tell us uh how many students appeared totally 24 lakhs around minutes around 24 minutes you have the precise figure 23 lakh I'll give you 23 lakh 33,000 297 he against registration of 24 lakhs and plus 72,000 students my lords did not take the exam SP registration now uh how were the papers distributed abroad they were sent and when were they sent abroad the embassies through the embassies and how are they sent to the embassies get the details were they sent by The Diplomatic bag was they sent by ker I'll find out and pleas on record and second if the uh now there were the the the the exam was held in as many as 4750 centers yes maam in 571 cities yes ma'am right yes ma'am now uh when you say that the two booklets we'll call them yes A and B set a and set B yes sir uh they were sent to these cities when were they sent to these cities yes please when were they sent to the approximately about we don't want tell us the precise dates I'll get the exact dates when were they and how were they sent to those cities yes I'll get dets bear police and was and were they lodged in the State Bank and Canada Bank in each of these cities or what happened each of the Cities minut they are lodged with the custodians who are M KRA bank and State Bank so we want to know on what date were the question papers sent where were they when were they when the question papers were prepared yes right question papers are prepared by one person or more than one person group of experts question papers are prepared at the headquarters where are the headquarters Delhi in Delhi so two sets are prepared by two different groups of one group the same one second one second the same group of experts need there's two different sets of question at the headquarters yes after they have prepared they given to the NTA yes right now in tell us tell us when when did the group of persons conduct the prepare the question papers and give you the question papers dates I I'll get the date right we want to know what was the date on which these question papers were prepared and given to you point one yes after they were received by NTA in what custody they were preserved when did NTA send them to the State Bank of India and Canada Bank different cities in between printing is there printing presses to the printing which is a printing press yes we will get the details we want to know which is the printing press yes when did you send these question papers to the printing press yes ma'am what were the transportation arrangements made for sending them to the printing press yes when did the printing press after the printing press them we now talking of 23 where 24 lakhs 50 lakh sets yes right because 24 lakh had how many sets were printed correct and after they were printed where were they sent are they sent back to the headquarters at Delhi yes please huh the the remaining sheets unutilized ones no no after the question paper is said it is sent for printing yes you have a printing press a yes you need not tell us where the printing press is otherwise next year they'll be they will go to that now it is sent to that printing press yes right how is it sent to the printing press under what custody yes second after they are printed how do the printing how do the printing press send it back to NTA between that date and give us that date how many days had elapsed between that and the distribution of the question question papers to these 471 cities and 4750 Cent the entire movement PL I'll prepare a track starting from the preparation of the question paper see I tell you why we are asking I if we come to the conclusion that the time lag between the leak and the actual date of the examination is relatively limited yes then that would be a circumstance which would militate against holding a retest not if the time lag between the leak and the actual examination brother Mish actually men is wi is wider then there's a greater chance that the Malay is across the system I get it I'll get if if it appears that the question papers were leaked on the morning of the 5th exam was scheduled at 2:00 students were made to memorize the questions that may be one indicator that the leak was not as widespread somebody who has a question paper is not going to ask students to sit down and memorize them and give on the spot memorize them how many answers can a student memorize there are two aspects therefore we we have to have some clarity on facts for us to understand whether this is so systemic that we must order a watch see there are two or three considerations which way one if the if the sanctity of the examination has been lost then a retest has to be ordered right yeah if we are not able to identify students who are candidates who are guilty of wrongdoing a retest has to be ordered if you can't distinguish the grain from the shaft that is a tainted from the untainted a r test has to be ordered your lord Jud on the other hand right on the other hand on the other hand we are dealing with now a situation of 23 lakh students may be farfetch for us to at least presume unless they point out material to us that all 23 lakh students or a substantial number of them are involved in the fraud for what we know a large number of students maybe just honest students have appeared for the exam large number we have to but we have to see we have to see if you know second what was the modality one more very important aspect what was the modality in which the leak was detected if sorry the leak took place if the modality of the leak is through electronic means social media then there is a possibility the leak is extremely that is the point said is all correct media you know we flagging these issues we want you to therefore give us a comprehensive analysis of dates certainly because if the leak is taking place through say telegram if it is taken through WhatsApp that happen you know because if it's through social media or any electronic means of communication like wildfire on the other hand uh we must also balance it out about the time at which the leak takes place if it's more or less in the morning of the 5th then the time between when the leak takes place and the students have to go for the examination very limited watch on the is a hard decision but one more thing which we require some assistance from both sides please don't treat it as an adversary litigation the reason for the reason for the reason one second for the reason that whatever view we ultimately take this view is impacting the lives of 20 second right second second we want to understand is it POS for the court to identify red flags right so can we identify either we do it or we appoint an expert committee to identify the red flags I'll give you some examples of red flags 720 out of 720 all every everybody out who's get 720 is not a fraud star there may be still people who are extraordinarily bright that 720 out of 720 but we found that for the previous years the proportion was very low or now this year suddenly it goes up to 67 how many out of those 720 are people from that 563 who are beneficiaries of the added Grace Mark we have given the details in our count 8 places no we just want you to now put it down on a piece of paper for us uh second second you want to understand is so a change in a change in centers is possible Right a change in centers is possible suppose a student I was just telling my brothers at lunch suppose a student is registered at lnno suddenly you find that student has gone from lnno to a distant Center and gets very and gets the 720 suppose somebody is registered at Amad and suddenly goes to a fairly so that may be one that may be one example consider so we can you know we will have to do some if we have to sh separate the grain from the Sha we will have to identify certain red flags that those who fall in that red flag category we may have to then hold a limited retest for that category alone second is it possible to do using the Cyber forensic unit of say the uh Ministry of Home Affairs or whatever is it possible to do a data analytics on the on the entire result and to identify now there may be one category I was thinking you know when we were reflecting on this matter students who get exceptionally High marks in the in the need but whose performance is not reflected in the 12th but there again but there again I'll tell you one thing one second there again there is a there's a problem students don't study as hard for the 12th as they study for the only one one figure another another red flag another red flag another red flag a student get exceptionally High marks in one in one one faculty of science like say physics or chemistry but gets five marks in the others so you know because it may be unlikely that a student who is doing so brilliantly in one would not have studied at all for the other faculty so the only point is that you know I'm not sure whether we should be doing this or whether these they have not declared the entire result also as brother Mishra says the full marks have a pattern we also I wanted to answer that we also want to understand we also want to understand the the pattern of neat itself well the pattern quickly only 45 questions on physics 45 questions on chemistry 45 on zoology and botony to totally 180 four marks so 45 questions on physics 45 on chemistry 45 on math on boty and 45 on zology so 45 * of 4 that is 180 180 into 4 720 right if you if you get a wrong answer minus one so therefore if you had uh given 179 right right answers your score would have been 720 minus 5 that is 715 here there have been answers uh scores of 718 79 atically impossible because you lose four answer was that it is because of the grace marks to retest give me two minutes give me two minutes submission something just some figures which are handy and that might answer I'm oblig your's question it's a very pertinent question we examine the pattern of 100 top ranking students those who were in the first 100 that analysis comes that they were distributed amongst 95 centers in 56 cities in 18 states or union territories the the top 100 the top 100 huh they are found they appeared in 95 Centers located in 56 cities which has spread out in 18 states or Union and my Lord one second one second now page 86 of my reply page 37 is the and one more thing which we want to know now is that how many F have been matter has been handed over to CBI for investig I I'll just tell you totally how many FS have been registered one F paper leak in P rest Mal are FS for some local Mal practice how many totally FS have been registered according to them 6 my our knowledge is not can you give us tomorrow maybe but we'll I tell you second we want to know now one thing is very clear that the leak has taken place in yes in one cent with the one Center we that's what we have to decide we the fact that the s that the sanctity of the examination compromise is now compromised is beyond doubt that there has been a yes yes I'm I'm sorry now question is Mr solicor how widespread is that P also the paper leak is not an admitted fact but my learnning friend relied upon that press not kind of a thing no an admitted fact but can we deny the fact that a leak of question complete complete cover biar police on that very day on which the some news reporting came which my learned we issued this PR that this is false is not our briefing to the media no but is the case of NTA today that there is no leak ad Mr Mr Kik we take it that it's an admitted fact that there is a leak there is no question about it but what you know the nature of the leak is what we are determining yes we are asking question the fact that there was a leakage of question papers is an is is cannot be disputed now what is the consequence of the Le would depend upon the extensive nature of that leak if it leak or uncontained you don't I'll tell you one thing you don't cancel a whole examination merely because two students have committed a malpractice likewise assuming that there is a leak we don't live in an Ideal World there should be no leak but before we decide to order a leak a r test we must be we must be we must be careful about what is the nature of that leak because we are conscious of the fact that we are dealing with a careers of 23 L absolutely abely right asking look asking 23 lakh students to reappear for an examination together with the preparation cost travel and dislocation of admission Che there is Choice unfortunately there is no choice has been leaked now now therefore we want to know this therefore we would like to know first the entire process which Tak place to what is the what is the nature of the fs which have which have come forth when how was the leak what what is the point of time at which the leak took place how was the leak disseminated these are important questions me and next very important what is the what are the what are the actions what are the actions which the government of India and NTA have taken to identify the wrongdoing students or the beneficiaries of the wrong first to make I'd like to make submission I'm inan 31.9 my Lord we have understood your lordship question they very pertinent question and that would ultimately lead but I one one second Mr Sol we also want to know what is the what are the steps which have been taken by the NTA and by the government to identify the beneficiaries of the Leakes because that we have to we have to go with we have to be ruthless on identifying the beneficiaries we also have to be ruthless right because anybody who has breached the examination is not entit to be there as a successful those who are identified their results are but give me an example how many we want to know how many have been identified but more than how many have been identified we want to know what was the course of action which was taken by the government kindly allow me to give an example for the time being leave biar I'll call the police also I'll take instructions take for example gudra incident it passes on as a paper leak case it's not a paper leak case what happened was there was one superintendent of one particular Center called J J jalaram School his name is Tushar B but he arranged with certain students that he didn't have the paper but he said that whatever answers you can confidently answer you give the answers these are multiple choice questions with negative marking and therefore I would have a window of 3 hours before uh after I take your papers back and I seal it and send it to the concern Authority fortunately the authorities the district magistrate came to know about this it must have percolated from somewhere therefore the moment examination started the entire District administration and entire police Administration was there the papers after the examination were taken in their custody sealed in their presence and sent and that man was arrested now from from his mobile there were several video chats which were found and we could identify that these were the people who with whom he was in touch so those identified students their papers are their results are with and they are issued shos notices why should they not be want to know totally concerned about partna is leakage we are not complaining I'm only about paper leakage part nothing else all of are minor issues Min issues nobody would ask for nobody would ask for the examination overall in the entire country how many students whose uh whose results have been withheld uh o to what is we are what we are discussing today individual one student cheating from another student we are not bothered about that absolutely that the law will take its own course how many students are there whose results have been withheld as a result of the systemic uh so we won't say systemic as a result of the leakage so and and where are those students situated you want to see the geographical distribution of those students are they in one state are they in multiple states where are they situated and and third now one more thing which we'd like to also dwell on is uh the following Justice the order passed by the bench prided over by honorable J Vikram in the in the vacation 1563 students there was a retest that was held on the 23rd of June or 21st of June 23rd of June it has been now one second one second one second just just tell us for this examination now are we still in the process of identifying the wrong of the wrongdoers in terms of the students we're not talking of those who are perpetrators but beneficiaries have we been able to completely identify the students who are the beneficiaries or is that process still ongoing answer is for instance for instance for instance one second for instance look if we have no go if we have no go we'll have to cancel the exam there has been no effort whatsoever on that side as a quot yes this cancellation of a test of this nature 24 lakh students complely agre is a matter is a matter of extreme last because it may be you know this may and therefore therefore we asking questions about when was the what was the time at which the leage took place so that will give us an idea of what was the opportunity for dissemination there are 56 quick answer quick answer if you're just one second one second Mr solicitor Mr solicitor one second second one second sir one second just one second everything by after one second one more one more thing I want to ask you is that with the kind of technology which we have today at our disposal and the government of India has it cyber forensic unit is it not possible for us to run through the use of experts to bring some sense of confidence to the process uh that you know you you carry out a detailed uh data analytics exercise to see if there are suspicious markers now we have to identify what the suspicious markers are all right so I just want to say one thing let us not be in self-denial absolutely right the you know self-denial is only adding to the problems because now everybody knows there was a leap so let's not we have two or three things we have to see what happened for this exam what we do in the ongoing process for the conclusion of this year's admission and finally which is the third aspect of the matter which we'll answer what do we ensure what do we do to ensure that the leak does not take place again in the future or what are the steps we are taken to ensure that you know the dissemination in the future does not result in the leaks that we have uh that we have encountered on the last aspect subject we you there should be a there should be a sort of a multi-disciplinary committee consisting of the best experts not necessarily only from the government but people who have very wide experience and who are respected across the country because we are you know today we are dealing I don't have to emphasize it we are dealing with the most prestigious of educational Admissions and every middle class parent which the every middle middle class parents aspires the children to go to medicine or engineer ing or you know now uh what are we doing to ensure that these that this will not happen in future and how are we planning to tighten the examinations process is there an audit being conducted by the government on what went wrong in the ENT that's one aspect what do we do the there a third aspect second aspect assuming that we are not going to cancel the entire exam what do we do between today and the date of admissions to identify those who are beneficiaries of the fraud and the first aspect first aspect do we cancel the exam or do we allow the counseling to go through by identifying the beneficiaries and on the first aspect we'd like to know from the government what have you done so far to identify those who are beneficiaries of the I can assure you lot one thing but we are not we are not adversary report of the report of the CB and police that is most important report of the CB and the police Mr solicitor you know they have from one second from what they are trying to emphasize we find that they they placed a great deal of emphasis on the fact that in the uh 20 2122 23 you had 1 + 3 + 1 + 2 that is 4 and 1 5 and 2 7 students who got 720 out of 720 in four years this year we have 67 67 who get 720 which 6 one one second we have an answer with no no I have one more question what is the what one second what is the percentile distribution in this exam across categories not just 720 centers no no no that the distribution of marks is it skewed at the top in the last year suppose how many anywh in the bottom third percentile in the middle third percentile in the top third percentile this year is this year in the s that will give us an indicator was the was the pattern was it a paper leak was the examination pattern comparatively easier as opposed to the previous years we have correct we have done the Anis we it I have given that answer to make a small submission P the chart I have given that satisfies my Lord's quy the marks I have compared given the table somebody in 2022 who obtained 700 marks see this table for a moment that you throw light on my Lord's quy uh 222 somebody who obtained 700 marks yes in 2022 his rank was 94 right in 23 somebody 700 his rank was 247 then somebody has 700 in 2024 his rank is 2,250 he goes down goes down because there also there question also there is another aspect one second how many students appeared in 2022 23 and 24 same same same table is showing table is showing it the 56 students that are before total number of all of them Stoppers see the difference I also there is another aspect to it increase in a very linear fashion by there is another aspect to it in fact NT has published several answer key my Lord I'd like to point I I'd like to I'd also like to point out um some May something6 submission rest all of them have been meritorious have scored highest Mark in class 10 and 12 in in so far as Gujarat is concerned in this 56 people that have come before alone so this is a case where all of us are facing tremendous mental Agony because of this that's all now we can leave Al leave aside the emotions you can say what what we want to know Mr what we want to know is this we will have these you know we'll have the these anecdotal uh you know charts like this which are given to us then is there please take instructions from the government can we not run this through a data analytics program to the Cyber forensic unit you can contact if the government has that in the ministry of Home Affairs so much the better if you don't have it you can ask any of our top uh service providers to to to find out because because we have to identify a whether the you know whether the the skewing of marks is so systemic that the whole examination is affected or is it possible to identify people who are wrongdoers or likely wrongdoers in which case a retest can be held for those students only I'd like to make a small sub way but I can assure you about one thing but we are not adversarial to the petitioners either way the petitioners who have an apprehension of an all- India problem or petitioners 23 LS in number plus who are Lord feeling insecure because they may have to face another examination but we are concerned about both the sites and we will assist your L dispassionately then whatever your suggest I think the solution lies somewhere else what we'd like to do in so far as the petitioners are concern please all lawyers for the petitioners please we'll take it up on Wednesday give them a day time also wanted one day's time we'll give you a day's time to put your together we want all the lawyers for the petitioners who are asking for a retest who are asking for a retest to sit together between now and Wednesday and give us one set of submissions viation we can't have we can't have people you know 100 lawyers arguing before us on 100 different grounds we want you to all sit down we'll appoint one nodal coun as we do in the CB matters that's right you give us a one Consolidated submission say not exceeding 10 pages you don't mind it should it shouldn't exceed 10 pages why youing for a ref all right for that purpose likewise we'll do this we will ask the government to circulate a comprehensive list of dates and a response to what we have uh what we have what we have raised directed everything is with CBI NTA as we have seen in the reply they say we do not know whether it was systemic or not here sometime they completely deny this so let the CBI file a status report before this honorable Court in all all six FS that will place the picture that in which direction the investigation is going not all six filteration in between submit a status report take instruction from for the CBI CBI file the status why don't you do this ask to file that's the leag has Min on Investigation whether it is systemic or suggestion consider it I'd like to make a small submission my Lord here also the m only one one request I call for the record from the CBI also and because something how to place it before Etc can we can I request joint request that we file everything as suggested by L by Wednesday and matter can be heard on Thursday so we are not nobody off is taken by surprise that what is the document we prepare it today file it by day after uh and we can have that filteration which happens in between but the investigating officer is the best person I'm not overall Wes he's saying take it up on Thursday will so you will get 24 hours to study what they are saying and in the me if just consider one more that's the entire result of 2 23 LH people we declared on their website they have not declared that result we will also analyze the data because they declared the result of 100 we could see that six people who secured rank one are from the same Center de be able to see not comprehensiv Deed on the I'd like to make a small submission you made your point CER got the Mark 720 and 720 72 how is it possible my question that in my second question different different how is it possible answer keys for the same om multiple answer keys for one single has been published by the NTA on it website opened up on the 8th of April for enlisting students M on a 24-hour window on the 9th and the 10th of April mil and change of answer also CH answer Al this is and then the second question that why the has declared the result the fourth June my Lord question already my Lord three answer keys for the same set question paper how can that how can NTA publish that n also should be investigated how many total 1,000 1,000 approximately is government how many uh lak 18,000 something is the exact figure 56,000 is the government SE the buling is on the government so that they can do private and my my Lord I'd like to make a small submission my Lord my lordship it's my humble request dat which is come out important this please come outet status my Lord on VC I may be allowed to make a small submission of 30 seconds which is open on the 9th of April sir my lordship the portal is opened on 9th April 2024 it's my humble request EST please give the clear data to find out so that we can my why the window was open on 8th and 9th the reason and what was the result because this is the only difference my Lord have identified 15 candidate who are something we we now place it on Thursday we'll just give some direction to the matter so we'll be able to focus on what we want on 9 February 20 24 the national testing agency into brackets NTA issued an online application form for the national eligibility come Entrance Test into brackets neat ug bracket 2024 n conducted the neat ug examination on 5 May 2024 let stop results will declare on on 4th June 2024 next on 5 May 20 24 from the material which is emerged on the record at the present stage comma it appears that on 5 May 2024 the first information report wearing fi number 358 stroke 2024 was launched at P shastri nagar Patna alleging a leak in the neit ug 2024 question papers implicating offenses under sections 407 408 and 409 read with section 120b of the Cod St on 23 June 2024 the economic offenses unit of Bihar police issued a press release noting where in connection with the above F 13 persons including candidates and members of and into invert commas members of the organized gang of examination leak sorry I should not interrupt this is what I gave to a l this is not true that is what the Bihar police on that very where is that I just my friend is wrong what police cic no no you trying to cover up this is on that very day published Mal by the Bihar police this is with regard to the news report of NE ug exam published in the Sunday Express Newspaper dated 23rd June on its front page with the headline biar police put so this press release is not an official press Rel no no that's what the be police clarifies read it further uh forar he handed this over to me just in the news item the UND sign has been wrongly quoted and the name has been mentioned at least three times in the news item by the correspondence so and so whereas the matter of fact is that no such brief had been given by the undersign to him in this regard and neither the concern correspondent ever contacted me before attributing the code to the undersign no official press release or statement in this matter had been issued this irresponsible Act of correspond second according to the petitioners on 23 June 2024 a press release was issued by the economic offenses unitar police setting out in regard to the uh paper leak which had taken place the other hand comma from a communication dat 23 June 2024 addressed by the additional DGP economic offenses unit has been stated that no official press release or statement as an act of had been had been issued by the biar police good stop be that as it may comma in this batch of petitions one of the primary relief which has been sought is for a court mandated retest the entire process which took place culminating in the examination which was conducted on 5 May 2024 but stop in support of the case in support of the of their case the petitioners have relied on the primary circumstances first it has been submitted that before that you can just say the neat UGI 2024 examination consisted of multiple choice questions involving a total of 180 questions let's stop the each of the 180 questions carried four marks making for a total of 720 marks for the examination 45 marks each were allotted to the segments in physics chemistry chemistry geology andology physics chemistry botony and zy stop the examination and this AG the award of negative marks of of of one of one negative Mark per wrong answer uh per wrong answer next in support of The Plea that the court should direct are examination the petitioners have primarily relied on two circumstances first it has been submitted that between in in that candidate securing Max maximum the maximum of 720 marks we confined to a few students if you between 2020 and 2023 in 2020 full stop as opposed to this in the NIT UGI 2024 as many as 67 candidates are reported to have secured maximum of 720 marks the submission can best be highlighted by reproducing the chart which has been placed of the hearing AA above chart indicates that while only one that while one student in 2020 three students in 2021 one student in 2022 and two students in 2023 secured the maximum marks there's been a radical increase in the student securing the maximum of 720 marks in 2024 apart from the second submission proceeds on a comparative tabulation of the ranks which would be which were allotted to students in 2022 2023 and 2024 for me for me most important the league has happened that is the call uh the second uh the above submission is sought to be highlighted from the following formulated chart above chart indicates that students receiving specific level of marks between 539 and 700 what secured a particular rank in 2022 secured lower ranks in 2023 and a radically lower Mark a radically lower rank in 2024 no no no same marks same level of marks not same story stop next considering weather before that you can say uh it is certain basic facts which are not in dispute need to be alluded to so about 24 lakh students registered for the neat ug examination which was to be conducted in the month of May 2024 stop about 23.33% 297 students appeared for the examination the examination was conducted at 4750 centers comprised within 571 cities what stop the examination was also held in 14 cities overseas stop the total number of seats medical seats for undergraduate one second I've made a note for undergraduate studies uh is 1.08 lakhs of which approximately 56,000 are seats in government hospitals good stop the investigation Prim from tentatively at the present stage the court has been apprised of the fact that the don't say tentatively the court has been apprised of the fact that first information reports were registered in Patna and Gujarat Rajasthan jaran and Maharashtra correct good stop uh whether the uh whether the uh whether the uh files in relation to the paper leag is only confin to yes or otherwise is a matter which would have to be reserved for a more detailed elaboration detailed consideration on stop the above narration indicates that the examination was conducted over a wide spectrum in prising of nearly 23 black students spread over 4,750 centers in India good Stu before the court can be full stop uh the law on WE a retest should be ordered in a situation such as the present is based on fairly settled parameters let the court would have to scrutinize on the basis of the data which has emerged on the record whether colon one breach in the sanctity of the examination has taken place whether bracket one the alleged breach has taken place at a system at a systemic level or at a systemic level semicolon bracket two whether the breach is of a nature which has affected the Integrity of the exam of the entire examinations process and three whether it is possible to segregate beneficiaries of the fraud from the untainted students stop in a situation where the reach in the sanctity of an examination affects the entirety of the process and it is it is not possible to segregate those who are the beneficiaries of wrongdoing from others comma it may be necessary to order re examination on the other contrary wise where the bre is confined to specific areas or centers and it is possible to identify those who are beneficiaries of wrongdoing it may not be appropriate to order a retest particularly in an examination which has been conducted on such a massive scale involving over 23 lakh students involving such a large body of students who would haveed who who have studied for the examination undertaken costs and expenses and would have to undergo the rigors of a fresh examination if it were to be ordered by the court next while flagging these issues while flagging the above issues comma we are of the view that view on the merits would have to be deferred until further facts are rep placed on the record before this court One Stop the we for that purpose we intend to direct the national testing agency to make a full disclosure uh before the court let stop the disclosure which we are intending to require can broadly be classified into three aspects the first aspect pertains to the nature of the leak places where the leak took place and the lag of time between the occurrence of the leak and the conduct of the examination and this on on from this perspective comma NTA must nth has directed to clarify on the basis of the material which is in its possession is of dat on the following issues record one when the leak of the question papers has first taken place to the manner in which the question papers were leaked or disseminated let me Bra 3 the duration between the time duration between the occurrence of the leak and the actual conduct of the examination which took place at 2 p.m. between 2: p.m. and 5:20 p.m. on 5 May 2024 uh the second uh uh while while making the uh full stop uh on the above aspect comma we are also of the view that since the investigation has been interested to the CBI comma the status report should be filed by the investigating officer before this courot indicating the status of the there State indicating the the status of the investigation up to date and the material which has come to light during the course of the investigation one one may uh one may when the leag first was first noticed was first notice the investigating officer shall in particular indicate to this court shall shall place before this court material which has been gathered during the course of the investigation which should have a bearing on when the leak is alleged to have first taken place in the modalities in which the leak question papers were made available stop uh on the second the second perspective the second aspect on which we NTA shall make a disclosure of this scod is in regard to the steps which have been taken so far for identification of the beneficiaries of the leag sard the court will be apprised deria of the following bracket one how many students what were the steps which were taken by NTA to identify the centers stroke cities at which the leak took place to modalities followed or identifying the beneficiaries of the leak and three the number of students who have so far been identified to be the beneficiaries of the leaked question papers likewise the investigating officer Str Authority because identification may not be within hour all right uh the above information I I'll clarify while editing I'll put it so that it will be more the ministry of Home Affairs or some other the link will be at one place at how many the leak paper has been made available because leak will be in the entire at one no no we have said we have said the dissemination also we have the uh investigating officer shall also submit a status report bearing on the above aspects yes well third the third aspect uh on which uh it is necessary to have a further Disclosure by the union government as well as by n we say Union government and N is whether it is possible by the union government and N is whether would be is is on whether uh technically feasible yeah whether it would be feasible using the uh using data analytics either within the Cyber forensic unit or any other expert agencies within or which may be employed by the government to identify cases where uh suspect cases will stop for instance these cases may involve uh full stop uh this may be uh if this is possible comma the the authori shall uh identify before the court uh the identify the modalities which can be followed uh so as to segregate the tainted from the untainted students the third aspect on which uh we require a disclosure uh is in regard to the modalities to be followed uh between the conclusion of the examination including the retest which was held for 1563 students and the actual commencement of the counseling process what stop if uh an exercise is to be conducted by the NTA and by the union government so so as to reduce any further beneficiaries of the question paper leakage a considered decision at the policy level would have to be taken by the government on whether counseling should be allowed to proceed in the meantime or otherwise not say that on the status of the council fourthly the court is concerned about the steps which should be taken hereafter to ensure the sanctity of the of the uh National eligibility come Entrance Test so that such instances which have transpired during the course of the present session are not repeated in the future this regard just one second please in this regard it would be necessary for the government to consider setting up uh a multi-disciplinary team consisting of uh renowned experts command The Wider confidence of the community to ensure that newe measures are being taken to new measures are being taken to obate any further reaches in the need in the future stop uh if a committee has already been set up by the government for the for for deducing the steps to be taken for the future full details shall be made available to the court stop the court May then consider whether the committee which has been constituted by the government should be allowed to proceed as it is whether the composition of the committee should be uh should be should be uh should be en toing so as to bring together a pool of talent from diverse Fields bearing not only on Administration but also on domain expertise and data analytics and Council appearing solicitor general appearing for the union of India and Mr K Mr Lear sen Council appearing for the NTA have uh requested the court to B the further hearing on Thursday so as to enable them to make their uh to file the do file the material in Person of the above uh queries by 5: p.m. on Wednesday full stop the uh the affidavit the the affidavit shall be shared with Council appearing on the on behalf of the petitioners simultaneously the report of the investigating officer of the CBI shall also Beed on the record in the meantime may I only say one aspect you know I'll tell you why let there be the reason why you asking for this disclosure whatever view we ultimately take Let There Be confidence in the community that absolutely AB entire in view of the large number of council who are appearing on the side of the petitioners we have requested that we it has been agreed who will be the noal council independently sometime right shall act as noal Council all the council for the petitioners who are desirous of pressing their submission for a d test shall file a common set of submissions not exceeding 10 pages by uh by before the next before the hearing takes place on Thursday allow the petition on this side can also of supported by the I appreciate but I also want to get out the fact are all cases where why don't you do this why don't you do this give us a short onepage note that will be more very said petitioners there are transfer petitions where we are essentially respondents and this is beyond the leak my Lord beyond the leak also yes my Lord there is also a change the answer also they change answer one question anded the number yes Lord in fact it's happen in my case also where there are three we have not we have not specifically in our order including the red flags iately put it into our order but you can just see whether there are some cases like that which you can identify see so that then uh we have toer perhaps they are not given copies the other ones who are intervening or Etc what we would suggest is what you give us on Thursday you and one more thing what you give us on Thursday make it comprehensive so that we don't have to wait through your counters and everything we just okay look at that basically make one small request we if we can if we can using whatever technology uh common sense and our understanding of the law identify the wrongdoing students we then don't have to ask 23 lakh students to again appear for the exam if we have no other go of course we there to allow the implment applications for us to file that one page of our diary number to be recorded that matter neat matter all right yes there are three other matters which we have to take s di number made not all right any other fresh matters on neat which were not on board yes after you can give the matters numbers to the court Master he'll bring them on board the one more thing Mr solic has everybody served their petitions on the CC but we have not not all right one second the council appearing for all the petitioners stroke Council appearing for all the petitioners stroke interveners Shall Serve copies on whom should we say Central MK maror on on MK maruna and Mr and Mr vaman Kosik Council appearing Council instructing the solicit general and Mr Kosik RC Kosik respectively uh the uh the two Council appearing on behalf of the uh rep the two Council Mr Maria and Mr the union of India and the NTA shall prepare a tabulated statement uh indicating for each petition tabulated statement grouping the petitions into distinct categories so as to facilitate disposal so what you can do is those which are which are which which are asking for a retest you can put in one category then individual uh grievances then we'll see what whether those grievances can be entertained whether we ask you to look into it what to do but we'll have one tabulated chart on EAS just request one indigence that's why we said therefore you serve a copy on the they have change the answer also they answer and given more 1,000 student problem for ranking is concerned but look this is nothing therefore those petitions you may have to delink there are individual petitions those are individual petitions where you say you have a medical condition you should have been given extra time we'll deal with it separately it does not deal with the sanctity of the examination that's individual students order should not be deemed to be is restricting only to the case of leak because between the not at all in fact that's why we finally said this for the reason my Lord on the 8th while the exam was announced for the fifth my lords of May on the 8th of April overnight my lords they brought about a notification that there will be a window open for students who could not register for the exam way back on 16th of March so this window that they opened by is absolutely difficult to so more students registered 25,000 anding an item for one second of look students registering Etc how can we because the initial advertisement we hear you we'll hear you on that we hear you the entire result the entire comprehensive result should be put on the website right now what's happening is individual results only are put up so somebody has go so we can't Mr Kik Mr Kosik the entire result except for those which you have we will say that these result shall not give any give rise to any equities or legal rights but you must at least now app the result yes the entire results the result comprehensive the DAT science can work here the revised result of 1563 and the rest of the persons all has been uploaded on 30th individually individually but do you haveed so that is why we can't use data science that's the problem if they they are deliberately keeping under RS no this would your L may take a call on that on Thursday but there is something app also of the also looked at they found it as a matter of fact that it was being the sold question paper was received by this gang on mobile phone on the morning of 5th of May where do we get that yes it is it is there let me let me come back to at page 292 of my second paragraph uh uh yes this this second paragraph at page 292 allow me to read that it says it was received on mobile phone by this gang when were they received uh they here they say 5th of May 2024 in the morning and the students were made in groups were made to memorize the answers to these questions this is what the finding is as a matter of fact we have a video which was shown to me it's a uh telegram uh channel channel where it has been recorded which is on 4th of May the question paper and answers were being circulated on a telegram Channel this has been captured the date and the telegram Channel we have and the questions have been messed the same question when were the question papers uh lodged in the locker what they will be able to tell when were the question papers sent to the locker five six days prior to the specific date specific date and second when were they pulled out of the locker two lockers right State Bank of India and can Bank bank now when were they pulled out to the locker on the date of the exam that is on 5th minutes not only the date which is relevant the time the reference what time was the examination held fth minutes what time was it in the after 2:00:00 520 3 hours 20 minutes now what what time were they pulled out of the Locker on the fifth around minutes 10:30 11:00 now at how many centers in India were the was the exam conducted in India 4,750 minutes 4,750 centers how many right how many cities 5 now please give us specific 571 and 15 centers were abroad mes 571 cities yes M and how many centers abroad 14 minutes 14 cities 14 cities centers B now tell us uh how many students appeared totally 24 lakhs around minutes around 24 minutes you have the precise figure 23 lakh I'll give you 23 lakh 33297 he against registration of 24 lakhs and plus 72,000 students my did not take the exam spite registration now uh how were the papers distributed abroad they were sent and when were they sent AB the embassies through the embassies and how are they sent to the embassies get the details were they send by The Diplomatic bag was it sent by ker I'll find out and pleas on record and second if the uh now there were the the the the exam was held in as many as 4,750 centers yes in 571 cities yes ma'am right yes ma'am now uh when you say that the two booklets we'll call them yes A and B set a and set B yes uh they were sent to these cities when were they sent to these cities yes when were they sent to the approximately about we don't want tell us the precise dat I'll get the exact dates when were they and how were they sent to those cities yes I'll get the dates bear police and was and were they lodged in the State Bank and Canada Bank in each of these cities or what happened each of the Cities they are lodged with the custodians who are mes KRA bank and State Bank so we want to know on what date were the question papers sent where were they when were they when the question papers were prepared yes right question papers are prepared by one person or more than one person group of experts question papers are prepared at the headquarters where are the headquarters Delhi in Delhi so two sets are prepared by two different groups or one group the same one second one second the same group of experts there two different sets of question at the headquarters yes after they have prepared they given to the NTA yes right now tell us tell us when when did the group of persons conduct the prepare the question papers and give you the question papers I I'll get the date right we want to know what was the date on which these question papers were prepared and given to you point one yes after they were received by NTA in what custody they were preserved when did NTA send them to the State Bank of India and Canada Bank to different cities in between printing is there printing presses sent to the printing which is a printing press yes we will get the details we want to know which is the printing press yes when did you send these question papers to the printing press yes maam what were the transport ation arrangements made for sending them to the printing press yes when did the printing press after the printing press them we now talking of 23 24 lakhs 50 lakh sets yes right because 24 lakh had how many sets were printed correct and after they were printed where were they sent are they sent back to the headquarters at Delhi yes please huh the the remaining sheets unutilized ones no no after the question paper is set it is sent for printing yes you have a printing press a yes you need not tell us where the printing press is otherwise next year there'll be they will go to that now it is sent to that printing press yes right how is it sent to the printing press under what custody yes second after they are printed how do the printing how do the printing spress send it back to NTA between that date and give us that date how many days had elapsed between that and the distribution of the question question papers to these 471 cities and 4,750 centers entire movement PL I'll prepare a track starting from the preparation of the question paper see I'll tell you why we are asking I if we come to the conclusion that the time lag between the leak and the actual date of the examination is relatively limited yes then that would be a circumstance which would militate against holding a retest not if the time lag between the leak and the actual examination brother Mish actually me is is wider then there's a greater chance that the Malay is across the system I get it I'll get if if it appears that the question papers were leaked on the morning of the 5th exam was scheduled at 2:00 students were made to memorize the questions that may be one indicator that the leak was not as widespread somebody who has a question paper is not going to ask students to sit down memorize them and give on the spot memorize them how many answers can a student memorize there are two aspects to therefore we we have to have some clarity on facts for us to understand whether this is so systemic that we must order a watch see there are two or three consideration which way one if the if the sanctity of the examination has been lost then a retest has to be ordered right yeah if we are not able to identify students who are candidates who are guilty of wrongdoing a retest has to be ordered if you can't distinguish the grain from the Sha that is the tainted from the untainted a r test has to be ordered Lord on the other hand right on the other hand on the other hand we are dealing with now a situation of 23 lakh students may be farfetch for us to at least presume unless they point out material to us that all 23 lakh students or a substantial number of of them are involved in the fraud for what we know a large number of students maybe just honest students who have appeared for the exam large number we have to but we have to see we have to see if you know second what was the modality one more very important aspect what was the modality in which the leak was detected if sorry if the leak took place if the modality of the leak is through electronic means social media then there is a possibility the leak is extremely that is the point said is all correct Med you know we flagging these issues we want you to therefore give us a comprehensive analysis of dates certainly because if the leak is taking place through say telegram if it is taken through WhatsApp that happen you know because if it's through social media or any electron means of communication like wildfire on the other hand we must also balance it out about the time at which the leak takes place if it's more or less in the morning of the 5th then the time between when the leak takes place and the students have to go for the examination very limited is a hard decision one more thing which we require some assistance from both side please don't treat it as an adversary litigation the reason for the reason for the Reas one second for the reason that whatever view we ultimately take this view is impacting the lives of 20 second right second second we want to understand is it possible for the court to identify red flags right so can we identify either we do it or we appoint an expert committee to identify the red flags I'll give you some examples of red flags 7 20 out of 720 all every everybody out who's get 720 is not a fraud star there may be still people who are extraordinarily bright that 720 out of 720 but we found that for the previous years the proportion was very low now this year suddenly it goes up to 67 how many out of those 720 are people from that 1563 who are beneficiaries of the added Grace Mark we have given the details in our count 81 places no want you to now put it down on a piece of paper for us uh second second we want to understand is so a change in a change in centers is possible Right a change in centers is possible suppose a student I just telling my brothers at lunch suppose a student is registered at lnno suddenly you find that student has gone from lakau to a distant Center and gets very and gets the 720 suppose somebody is registered at Amad and suddenly goes to a fairly distance so that may be one that may be one example consider yes so we can you know we will have to do some if we have to sh separate the grain from the Sha we will have to identify certain red flags that those who fall in that red flag category we may have to then hold a limited retest for that category alone second is it possible to do using the cyber forensic unit of say the uh Ministry of Home Affairs or whatever is it possible to do a data analytics on the on the entire result and to identify now there may be one category I was thinking you know when we were reflecting on this matter students who get exceptionally High marks in the in the need but whose performance in the 12th but there again but there again I'll tell you one thing one second there again there is a there's a problem students don't study as hard for the 12th as they study for the only one one figure another another red flag another red flag another red flag a student get exceptionally High marks in one in one one faculty of science like say physics or chemistry but gets five marks in the others so you know because it may be unlikely that a student who is doing so brilliantly in one would not have studied at at all for the other faculty so the only point is that you know I'm not sure whether we should be doing this or whether these but they have not declared the entire result also as brother Mishra says does the full marks have a pattern we also I wanted to answer that we also want to understand we also want to understand the the pattern of need itself well let the pattern quickly only5 45 questions on physics 45 questions on chemistry 45 on zoology and botony to totally 180 four marks so 45 questions on physics 45 on chemistry 45 on math on botony and 45 on zology so 45 times of 4 that is 180 180 into 4 720 right if you if you get a wrong answer minus one so therefore if you had uh given 179 right uh right answers your score would have been 720 minus 5 that is 715 here there have been answers scores of 718 79 mathematically impossible because you lose for answer was that it is because of the grace marks to R give me two minutes give me two minutes submission something you will just some figures which are handy and that might answer I'm oblig your's question it's a very pertinent question we examine the pattern of 100 top ranking students those who were in the first 100 but the analysis comes that they were distributed amongst 95 centers in 56 cities in 18 states or union territories the the top 100 the top 100 huh they are found they appeared in 95 centers located in 56 cities which are spread out in 18 states or Union and my Lord one second one second now page 86 of my reply page 37 is the one more thing which we want to know now is that how many fi have been matter has been handed over to CBI for investigation I I'll just tell you totally how many FS have been registered one F paper leak in Pat rest Malon are FS for some local PR how many totally FS have been registered according to them our knowledge is not can you give us tomorrow'll second we want to know now one thing is very clear that the leak has taken place in yes in one Center no with one Center we that's what we have to decide we we the fact that the s that the sanctity of the examination compromise is now compromised is beyond doubt that there has been a yes yes I'm I'm sorry now question is Mr solicor how widespread is that also the paper leak is not an aded fact but my learning friend relied upon that PR not kind of a thing but can we deny the fact that a leak of question yes yes complete complete cover ad biar police on that very day on which some news reporting came which my learned friend we issued this PR that this is false is not our briefing to the media is the case of NTA today that there is no leak ad ad Mr Mr we take it that it's an admitted fact that there is a leak there is no question about it but you know the nature of the leak is what we are determining yes we are asking questions the fact that there was a leakage of question papers is an is is cannot be disputed now what is the consequence of that Le would depend upon the extensive nature of that leag if it Le or uncontained you don't I'll tell you one thing you don't cancel a whole examination merely because two students have committed a malpractice likewise assuming that there is a leak we don't live in an Ideal World there should be no leak but before we decide to order a leak a n test we must be we must be we must be careful about what is the nature of that leak because we are conscious of the fact that we are dealing with a careers of 23 is absolutely right absolutely right asking look asking 23 lakh students to reappear for an examination together with the preparation cost travel and dislocation of admission schedules isely there is Choice unfortunately there is another Choice has been leaked before we want to know this therefore we would like to know first the entire process which is this said to what is the what is the nature of the fs which have which have come forth when how was the leak what what is the point of time at which the leak took place how was the leak disseminated these are important questions if and next very important what is the what are the what are the actions what are the actions which the government of India and NTA have taken identify the wrongdoing students or the beneficiaries of the wrong come first I'd like to make I'd like to make submission I'm inan 31.9 my Lord e we have understood your L's question they are very pertinent question and that would ultimately Le but I just one second Mr s we also want to know what is the what are the steps which have been taken by the NTA and by the government to identify the beneficiaries of the leaks because that we have to we have to go with we have to be ruthless on identifying the beneficiaries we also have to be ruthless right because anybody who has breached the examination is not entitled to be there as a successful those who are identified their results are but give me an example how many we want to know how many have been identified but more than how many have been identified we want to know what was the course of action which was taken by the government kindly allow me to give an example for the time being leave biar I'll call the police also I'll take instructions take for example gdra gdra incident it passes on as a paper leak case it's not a paper leak case what happened was there was one superintendent of one particular Center called J J jalaram School his name is Tushar B he arranged with certain students that he didn't have the paper but he said that whatever answers you can confidently answer you give the answers these are multiple choice questions with negative marking and therefore I would have a window of 3 hours before uh after I take your papers back and I S it and send it to the concern Authority fortunately the authorities the district magistrate came to know about this it must have percolated from somewhere therefore the examination started the entire District administration and entire police Administration was there the papers after the examination were taken in their custody sealed in their presence and sent and that man was arrested now from his mobile there were several video chats which were found and we could identify that these were the people who with whom he was in touch so those identified students their papers are results are with and they are issued shos notices why should they not be we want to know totally concerned about PNA PNA is leakage we are not complaining I'm only about paper leakage nothing else all minor issues isues nobody would ask for nobody would ask for the examination overall in the entire country how many students whose uh whose results have been withheld uh o to what is we what we are discussing today individual one student cheating from another student we are not bothered about that absolutely that the law will take its own course yes how many students are there whose results have been withheld as a result of the systemic uh so we won't say systemic as a result of the leakage which Le so and and where are those students situated you want to see the geographical distribution of those students are they in one state are they in multiple states where are they situated and and third now one more thing which we'd like to also dwell on is uh the following Justice the order passed by the bench prided over by honorable J Vikram in the in the vacation 1563 students there was a retest that was held on the 23rd of June or 21st of June 23rd of June it has been one second one second one second just just tell us for this examination now are we still in the process of identifying the wrong of the wrongdoers in terms of the students we're not talking of those who are perpetrators but beneficiaries have we been able to completely identify the students who are the beneficiaries or is that process still ongoing answer is no for instance for instance for instance one second for instance look if we have no go if we have no go we'll have to cancel the exam there has been no effort whatsoever on that side as a quot yes this cancellation of a test of this nature 24 lakh students is a matter is a matter of extreme last because it may be you know this right therefore therefore we asking questions about when was the what was the time at which the leage took place so that will give us an idea of what was the opportunity for dissemination quick answer quick answer if you're not just one second one second Mr solicitor Mr solicitor one second second one second sir one second just one everything by after one second one more one more thing I want to ask you is that with the kind of technology which we have today at our disposal and the government of India has it cyber forensic unit is it not possible for us to run through the use of experts to bring some sense of confidence to the process uh that you know you you carry out a detailed uh data analytics exercise to see if there are suspicious markers now we have to identify what the suspicious markers are all right so I just want to say one thing let us not be in self-denial absolutely right the you know self-denial is only adding to the problems because now everybody knows there was a Le so let's not we have two or three things we have to see what happen for this exam what we do in the ongoing process for the conclusion of this year's admission and finally which is the third aspect of the matter which we'll answer what do we ensure what do we do to Ure that the leak does not take place again in the future or what are the steps we are taken to ensure that you know the dissemination in the future does not result in the leaks that we have uh that we have encountered on the last aspect subject to hearing you there should be a there should be a sort of a multi-disciplinary committee consisting of the best experts not necessarily only from the government but people who have very wide experience and who are respected across the country because we are you know today we are dealing I don't have to emphasize it we are dealing with the most prestigious of educational admissions every middle class par which theas every middle middle class parents aspir the children to go to medicine or engineering or you know now uh what are we doing to ensure that these F that this will not happen in future and how are we planning to tighten the examinations process is there an audit being conducted by the government on what when wrong in the N that's one aspect what do we do the there a third aspect second aspect assuming that we are not going to cancel the entire exam what do we do between today and the date of admissions to identify those who are beneficiaries of the fraud and the first aspect first aspect do we cancel the exam or do we allow the counseling to go through by identifying the beneficiaries and on the first aspect we'd like to know from the government what have you done so far to identify those who are beneficiaries of the I can assure you lot one thing but we are not we are not adversary