The
Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a fresh plea filed by some
examinees challenging the government's decision to cancel the UGC-NET
examination following alleged question paper leak, saying that entertaining it
at this stage will create "chaos".
A
bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and
Manoj Misra said the government is conducting the exam afresh on August 21 and
the students, who are around nine lakh, must have some kind of "certainty
now".
"The Supreme Court
stepping now will have a serious effect and there will be chaos all over,"
the CJI said while declining to entertain the plea filed by Praveen Dabas and
others.
The
bench said the exam was held on June 18 and was cancelled a day after that.
"Entertaining
the plea at the present stage would only add to uncertainty and add to utter
chaos," the CJI said, adding the Central government must be "doubly
cautious after the NEET-UG fiasco and thus it was cancelled. Let this process
go on now".
Earlier,
the top court had dismissed a PIL on the issue, saying it was filed by a lawyer
and not by aggrieved candidates.
"Why
are you (lawyer) coming? Let the students come here themselves," the CJI
had told the lawyer, adding "while declining the above PIL, we express nothing
on merits".
The
bench had asked advocate Ujjawal Gaur, who has filed the PIL as a petitioner,
to focus on some legal matters and leave such issues for aggrieved persons.
The
earlier plea was also filed against the decision of the Union education ministry
and the National Testing Agency to cancel the UGC-NET exam following inputs
that its integrity may have been compromised.
The
ministry on June 19 had ordered the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam and handed
over the matter to the CBI for an investigation.