NEET security explained in SC: 24 students in one room, sealed papers, GPS trucks

The Centre took the Supreme Court through the layers of security used to protect NEET question papers. But the bench questioned whether better systems, rather than more layers, are needed to prevent exam irregularities.

In Short

• Centre explains NEET paper security from printing to distribution
• Papers packed in locked iron trunks under GPS monitoring to exam centres
• Supreme Court questions if current security addresses systemic issues

During the hearing of petitions related to the NEET examination, the Centre explained to the Supreme Court how question papers are protected from the time they are printed until they reach students.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and NTA officials showed the court the sealed folders, boxes and trunks used in the process.

The process, as explained to the court, works in several stages:

1. FOUR QUESTION-PAPER SETS ARE PREPARED

There are four different question-paper sets for the examination. The question numbers and corresponding OMR answer numbers are jumbled for each set.

The Centre also told the court that the printer does not know which examination paper they are printing.

2. PAPERS ARE PACKED AND SEALED

The OMR sheet is first sealed inside a tamper-proof cover. It is then placed inside a sealed envelope with markings so that it cannot be opened without detection.

A packet containing 24 question papers from four different sets is then placed inside a cardboard box.

The box carries a watermark number, city code and examination-centre code, which, according to the Centre, cannot normally be replicated.

3. BOXES GO INTO LOCKED IRON TRUNKS

For a particular centre—for example, hypothetically, Noida—the required question papers and cardboard boxes are packed into an iron box.

The box is secured with a one-time-use lock. It does not have a key or digital code.

A hacksaw is sent along with the box so that the lock can be cut open when the material has to be accessed.

Two trunks containing question papers are sent to each examination centre inside a sealed metal box.

4. TRUNKS ARE MOVED UNDER GPS MONITORING

The trunks are transported in a GPS-monitored vehicle.

They are then kept in the strongrooms of two local government-run banks, usually the State Bank of India and Canara Bank.

The strongroom is video graphed, while the seal document is signed by the city coordinator and bank manager.

5. NOBODY KNOWS WHICH TRUNK WILL BE USED

On examination day, the city coordinator decides whether paper A or B will be taken from Bank A or Bank B.

Until that decision is made, nobody knows which of the two trunks will be opened.

The trunk seal is broken in the presence of the city coordinator, bank manager, police representative and student representative.

6. SEALED ENVELOPES REACH 24 STUDENTS

The package is then handed to the class coordinator, who distributes the sealed envelopes to the 24 students taking the examination in that classroom.

After the examination, the paper follows the same sealing process in reverse before being taken back.

SUPREME COURT: IS SECURITY THE REAL PROBLEM?

The Supreme Court, however, questioned whether the process being explained was actually addressing the concerns before it.

Justice P S Narasimha said that what the Centre was explaining was already within the purview of the Radhakrishnan Committee, which had examined NEET examination systems.

The Solicitor General asked the court to allow him to explain the safeguards, saying the packet contained 24 question papers with four sets of questions that were jumbled.

But Justice Narasimha pointed out that the court had not interrupted the explanation and that the process described had already been considered by the committee.

The bench said that the systems being developed and adopted were themselves what had caused the problem.

The court noted that the Radhakrishnan Committee had identified the issue as a systemic problem requiring institutional solutions.

TRANSLATION, PRINTING AND COORDINATION ALSO UNDER SCRUTINY

The bench also raised concerns over the implementation of the committee's recommendations.

It observed that the Centre's affidavit suggested that the recommendations had been left at that stage, while the government had now constituted another committee.

The court noted that the committee's report had already covered the chain involving question-paper setting, translation into Indian languages, printing, tracking, packaging and transfer to custodial banks.

It also pointed to a major problem with translation and concerns over coordination.

The hearing therefore shifted the focus beyond how securely question papers are transported, to whether the entire examination system: from setting and translating papers to handling and evaluation, is robust enough to prevent the problems that have repeatedly raised concerns around NEET.

- Ends