SC Refuses To Entertain PIL Against Govt’s Decision On UGC-NET Exam Cancellation

The Supreme Court(SC) on Monday refused to entertain PIL against government’s decision to cancel UGC-NET examination on grounds of question paper leak.

The Apex Court bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, however, said the dismissal of the PIL does not amount to a decision on the merits of the PIL as it was filed by a lawyer and not by aggrieved students, PTI report said.

"Why are you (lawyer) coming? Let the students come here themselves," the CJI told the lawyer, adding "while declining the above PIL, we express nothing on merits", as per the above report.

The plea was 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.

Earlier, on June 19 the ministry had ordered the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam and handed over the matter to the CBI for an investigation.

In the plea before SC, the petitioner had also sought a direction to immediately stay the proposed re-examination of the UGC-NET exam until the CBI completes its inquiry into the paper leak allegations.