Court Allows NEET Leak Accused Yash Yadav to Take Retest but NTA Withholds Result
A Delhi court allowed a NEET-UG paper leak accused, Yash Yadav, to sit for the June 21 retest, though the National Testing Agency (NTA) has subsequently withheld his exam results. Yadav, a 20-year-old resident of Gurgaon, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on May 13 in connection with the alleged leak of the medical entrance exam.
On June 16, Special Judge Dr. Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi ruled that Yadav could not be denied the opportunity to take the retest, stating that his rights as a student should not be defeated by turning bail into punishment. However, while Yadav was permitted to take the June 21 exam, his results remain withheld by the NTA as investigations continue.
Yadav had previously appeared for the original NEET-UG exam on May 3. Following allegations of a widespread paper leak, the NTA announced the cancellation of the exam. The CBI subsequently arrested Yadav on May 13 in Gurgaon.
Investigators allege that Yadav was instrumental in distributing the leaked question paper. According to the CBI, Yadav received PDF files of the leaked NEET-UG papers through the secure messaging application Telegram and sold them for Rs 10 lakh.
In his June 16 order, Special Judge Gogne noted that while Yadav faces grave allegations of wrongful dissemination and trading of confidential questions, his candidacy and selection remain subject to appropriate orders from competent authorities.
"While the applicant does face grave allegations of wrongful dissemination and trading of confidential questions of the very examination in which he now seeks to appear, his rights as a student cannot be defeated by turning bail into punishment by denial of the opportunity to appear in the examination," the court order stated.
Yadav, who is a student at Uttarakhand Ayurved University in Dehradun, had requested interim bail to sit for the retest and to attend his sister's wedding.
The court declined to grant him interim bail, citing the initial stage of the investigation and the ongoing search for other suspects. Consequently, Yadav took the June 21 exam and attended his sister's wedding the following day while remaining in judicial custody.
