NEET row: SC seeks Centre’s response on CBI probe

New Delhi: In a significant development amid a raging row over the NEET-UG, the Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from the Centre and the NTA on a plea for a CBI probe into allegations of question paper leak and other irregularities in the exam.

A vacation bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, which was hearing a batch of pleas including a PIL filed by Hiten Singh Kashyap, also sought responses from the CBI and the Bihar government within two weeks. The bench said the pleas will be taken up with other pending ones on July 8, when the top court will start functioning after the summer vacation.

During brief hearing, the bench got irked when a lawyer referred to the students’ committing suicides at Kota, a hub of coaching centres, in Rajasthan as an argument to buttress his case for a CBI probe. "Don't make unnecessary emotional arguments here," Justice Nath said.

Responding to the submission for ordering a CBI probe, the bench said the reply of the NTA was necessary before an order could be passed. "It is the future of 24 lakh students," the lawyer said. "We understand. We are conscious of all that," the bench said.