Supreme Court disposed of petitions challenging the award of grace marks by the National Testing Agency or NTA in the NEET-UG 2024 by accepting the Centre’s recommendation to give 1,563 candidates an option of re-testing for loss of time during the examination held on May 5.
Why Is There Controversy Around NEET
Why In News
- Supreme Court disposed of petitions challenging the award of grace marks by the National Testing Agency or NTA in the NEET-UG 2024 by accepting the Centre’s recommendation to give 1,563 candidates an option of re-testing for loss of time during the examination held on May 5.
- The Centre has notified the Supreme Court of its decision to annul the scorecards of 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who received grace marks. This decision follows allegations of malpractice during the examination process. the Centre assured the court that these 1,563 students will have the opportunity to retake the test.
How All It Begins
- The controversy began after marksheets of some successful candidates surfaced on social media. Users who posted these images pointed out that a record 67 candidates secured the top rank with perfect score. Of these, around six candidates had appeared for the exam from the same centre.
- Students have been alleging the marks have been randomly reduced or increased for several candidates, affecting their ranks. There have been allegations of paper leak too.
- The Economic Offences Unit of Bihar Police had last month said that its investigation has revealed that the question papers and answers for NEET-UG were provided to approximately 35 aspirants before the May 5 exam. Thirteen individuals have been arrested so far in connection with the case. In total, 1,563 students received the grace marks.
- Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that aspirants at some centres were given the wrong set of papers. These students appeared for exam at six centres in Meghalaya, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Surat and Chandigarh.
- These students (totalling 1,563) claimed that did not get the full 3 hours and 20 minutes to write the exam due to administrative reasons, including the distribution of the wrong question paper, torn OMR sheets, or delay in the distribution of OMR sheets.
- A committee formed by the NTA investigated the matter and came up with the formula devised and adopted by the apex court in a 2018 judgement, to address the loss of time faced by candidates. The loss of time was ascertained and such candidates were compensated with grace marks.
What Does NTA Said
- As the controversy blew up, the National Testing Agency (NTA) came out with a statement maintaining that the sanctity of the exam has not been compromised.
- It said that rise in the number of top scorers reflects the increase in the competitiveness of the exam and improvement in performance standards.
- According to officials, grace marks were awarded to 1,563 candidates to compensate for the loss of time in line with the Supreme Court approved formula.
- Out of the 67 candidates who got 720 out of 720 marks, 44 are on account of the revision in one answer key of Physics, and six are on account of compensatory marks for loss of time. This adjustment aimed to address inconsistencies in NCERT textbooks, ensuring candidates were not disadvantaged by factual discrepancies.
- Education Ministry denies paper leak: The ministry has set up a four-member expert panel headed by former UPSC chairman to review the entire matter. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, however, denied the allegations saying there is no evidence of paper leak and claims of corruption in NTA.
Conclusion
- The scorecards of 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates seeking admission into medical colleges will be scrapped after they were given grace marks for a wrong question, the Centre told the Supreme Court.
- The students can opt for a re-test on June 23 and the results will be declared on June 30.
- The Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision not to halt the counselling process for NEET-UG 2024.
- “Counselling will proceed as scheduled and there will be no interruption. If the exam continues, everything else will proceed as well, so there is no cause for concern,” the top court said.
