NEET-UG 2024: Amid paper leak allegations, NTA to conduct re-exam for 1,563 grace mark candidates

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has issued a notification of a re-examination for 1,563 students scheduled for June 23, 2024, with results expected by June 30. The National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) undergraduate re-examination will be held only for applicants who received "grace marks."

A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta heard the NTA's announcement that a committee had been created to evaluate the candidates' results. The Committee decided to cancel the 1,563 candidates' scorecards and give them the option to retake the test.

The Supreme Court (SC) reaffirmed that the NEET-UG 2024 counseling procedure will continue as planned. The Court will continue to hear seven petitions challenging the conduct of the NEET-UG 2024 examination until July 8, along with the pending petitions.

The re-examination is only valid in situations where all 1,563 concerned applicants' scorecards issued on June 4, 2024, are annulled and revoked. The impacted candidates will receive their actual scores (without compensation) via their registered email addresses. Those who opt not to take the re-examination will have their results declared based on the actual marks they received in the May 5, 2024 exam, with no compensation.

Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education, earlier stated that NEET was performed satisfactorily across the country, with the exception of 6 out of around 4,500 centers experiencing problems. He dismissed rumors of a paper leak but emphasized that "no one will be spared" if any of them were proven true.

He guaranteed that every aspect is being investigated, accountability will be established, and, depending on the degree of the lapse, action will be taken. "There is no scope for any malpractice or irregularities in the conduct of any exam; we will not tolerate that," said the minister.

Alakh Pandey, the founder of ed-tech platform Physics Wallah, has filed a petition in the SC to resolve the challenges surrounding the NEET-UG 2024 exam. His petition alleges that the NTA arbitrarily awarded grace marks to more than 1,500 candidates. He has sought the apex court to appoint an expert group to scrutinize the examination process.

NEET-UG 2024 has been fraught with controversy, protests, and allegations that call into question NTA's credibility and trust. The claims of question paper leaks and the giving of grace marks have sparked significant protests and legal challenges in 7 high courts and the Supreme Court of India.

Following an FIR in Patna, Nayyar Hasnain Khan, Additional Director-General of Patna's Economic Offences Unit (EOU), stated that on May 5, an FIR was filed at the Shastrinagar police station in Patna regarding the misconduct that resulted in the arrest of 13 people.

The EOU took up the matter and constituted a 9-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) on May 17.

The investigation discovered that the mafia picked up the candidates a day before the exam and kept them in a boys' hostel. They seized the candidates' original documents and made them memorize the questions and answers. The applicants were then dropped off at the examination centers to write their papers.

"4 candidates have been nabbed so far, and they have said that the questions in the NEET-UG completely tallied with the ones they were made to memorize," Khan stated.

Following various raids, including the Khemnichak boy's hostel, the team detained 13 people. The arrested candidates revealed that around 30 examinees were held there overnight before the examination.

In mid-May, the EOU addressed the NTA and requested information on the "chain of custody" of question papers, including printing, transportation, and distribution, as well as the people and agencies involved, but no responses were received.

Khan stated, "We had asked a set of questions to the NTA, and our team received responses on June 12 after several requests." We may have some follow-up inquiries. We've been working on certain contacts we've received during our investigation, which strongly suggests a paper leak.

Another case emerged from Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, where English-medium papers were distributed to Hindi-medium candidates.

Haryana is in controversy for the exceptional result, where 6 toppers out of 67 achieving achieved a perfect score of 720, and were from a single Haryana centre.

Gujarat's Godhra town police have detained 5 individuals for allegedly conspiring to help at least 30 students cheat on the exam.

Panchmahal SP Himanshu Solanki stated that a cheque worth Rs 2.3 crore was recovered from the suspects' possession. An FIR was filed based on a complaint submitted by Godhra district education officer Kirit Patel. Police said the district collector was tipped off about the suspects' suspected misconduct at Jay Jalaram School, a designated NEET center.

Tushar Bhatt, the school's physics teacher and Deputy Superintendent of NEET-UG at the center, school principal Purushottam Sharma, Parshuram Roy, owner of an education consultancy, suspected middleman Arif Vora, and Vadodara resident Vibhor Anand were all under investigation.

According to authorities, the accused charged each student Rs 10 lakh to solve the exam paper. The plan was for NEET hopefuls to choose a specific center to write the exam and leave their OMR sheet blank during the examination. Later, one of the defendants, who worked as an exam center official, would fill in the blank OMR sheets with correct answers.

Questions are being raised concerning the exam. The results have been fraught with controversy since an unprecedented number of 67 candidates achieved 1st rank, scoring 720 out of 720 marks. Also, a candidates received 718 marks another scored 719 marks, which is illogical given that the marking method is +4 for every valid answer and -1 for each incorrect response. Also, the declaration of results was preponed by 10 days to June 4.

Presently, India has 695 medical colleges. In total, these colleges offer admission to 1,06,333 medical seats. A student's rank is directly proportional to their scores, with greater scores typically indicating higher ranks. This is especially significant for individuals hoping to get into prestigious medical schools.

Comparing this year result to 2023, where only two candidates received full marks, in 2022, it was three. Two candidates accomplished the feat in 2021, while one did in 2020. Students who scored approximately 600 marks earlier received a rank of roughly 20,000, but this year's rank was around 77,000, decreasing their chances of admission to a good medical college or college of their choice.

The reduction in grace marks is not the only solution to this national problem. Several issues remain unsolved, including cheating during examinations, paper leaks, and incorrect paper distribution. NTA did not specify how much time was lost due to the "loss of time" comment over grace marks.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) administered the NEET (UG) 2024 to over 24 lakh students at 4,750 centers in 571 locations (including 14 abroad). The results of the NEET (UG) 2024 were announced on June 4.