The Supreme Court issued a notice to the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday regarding alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 examination. The notice came in response to a petition filed by a learning app that highlighted "inconsistent" calculations of marks on OMR sheets.

A vacation bench comprising Justices Manoj Misra and SVN Bhatti requested a response by July 8, when the matter, along with other related petitions, will be heard.

The petition alleged that numerous students who appeared for the medical entrance exam did not receive their OMR sheets. The bench sought clarification from the NTA on the timeline for addressing grievances related to OMR sheets. "Let us know if there is a timeline to provide the OMR sheets. As of now we will tag it. Let NTA seek instructions on this," the court stated, tagging the petition for a July 8 hearing.

During the hearing, the bench criticized the role of coaching centers, stating they should not interfere in such matters. Justice Bhatti remarked, "This is one of the reasons where we see this role played by the coaching centres, bagpipers. They have hardly any role to play. Their obligation and duty...if they have discharged their service that is the end of the matter. They have not undertaken to see that everything that Centre is supposed to do it will be taken care by them."

In addition to the Supreme Court's involvement, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has launched probes into several cases related to the alleged NEET-UG scam. The investigation spans multiple states, with several arrests already made in connection with the controversy.