New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday refused to cancel the NEET-UG 2024 on grounds of paper leak and malpractices and said there was no material to indicate that the leak was systemic, affecting the sanctity of the entire exam.

A Bench, headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, said that ordering a re-examination will lead to serious consequences affecting over 23 lakh students and disrupt the academic schedule, causing a cascading effect in the coming years.

The country’s top judiciary, while acknowledging paper leaks at the centres in Hazaribagh (Jharkhand) and Patna (Bihar), said that sufficient material is absent on the record to conclude that the results of the exam stand vitiated in its entirety or that there was a systemic breach of its sanctity. There is no sufficient record to show that there was a systemic leak of the question paper which would lead to the destruction of the sanctity of the exam, the Court stated.