NEET-UG 2024: Government denies widespread misconduct, SC posts hearing on cancelation pleas to July 18

The Supreme Court which was to resume hearing of alleged irregularities in NEET-UG 2024 on July 11 adjourned the hearing of the petitions until July 18 to enable the petitioners to file their responses to the affidavits filed by the Centre and the National Testing Agency.

Meanwhile, the government on July 10 filed an affidavit with the Supreme Court stating that a thorough examination of the results revealed no evidence of widespread malpractice or a local set of candidates benefiting from the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024.

The government reaffirmed that it had no plans to administer the medical entrance exam again based on "unsubstantiated suspicions." It claimed that doing so would burden nearly 24 lakh students who had shown up for the exam on May 5.

The government has also stated that it plans to begin NEET-UG counseling within the third week of July in four phases.

A re-examination of the medical entrance exam has been requested by some petitioners at the Supreme Court due to anomalies and alleged paper leaks. Other petitions have been filed against the re-exam.

According to the government's affidavit, specialists from IIT Madras conducted a data analysis of the NEET-UG 2024 data and discovered no evidence of widespread misconduct or the benefiting of a specific group of students, which resulted in unusual scores.

The information showed that student scores have generally increased, especially in the 550–720 range, and this increase has been observed in all cities and centers.

According to the government, the increase in scores is the result of a 25% reduction in the syllabus, and the fact that high scorers were dispersed suggests that there is very little chance of widespread misconduct.

The affidavit further stated that every large-scale examination observes a bell-shaped curve in the distribution of marks, demonstrating that there was no anomaly.

As per the government, IIT Madras has been asked to use data analysis to look into the individuals involved in irregularities. If evidence from that or other sources shows that any candidate has benefited, their counseling will be terminated at any point during or after the process.

The government claimed in a previous affidavit that canceling the 2024 exam altogether would "seriously jeopardize" the future of thousands of deserving applicants. Taking such an action would not be reasonable in light of the lack of evidence for any examination.

To ensure that there are no more leaks or irregularities in future exams, the government has suggested a seven-member expert team to review all the matters brought up in addition to the CBI investigation.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) also submitted a separate affidavit to the Supreme Court, stating that only 47 applicants, 17 in Patna and 30 in Godhra, have been suspected of engaging in OMR sheet irregularities and paper leaks thus far.

In its first hearing of the petitions on July 8, the bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud asked the Centre and NTA took to identify the beneficiary students of the wrongdoing and directed the government and NTA to submit affidavits by July 10.

The NTA claimed that popular videos circulating on the social media app Telegram that appeared to reveal images of a leaked NEET-UG question paper were fake.

“Discussions within the Telegram channel indicate that members identified the video as fake. The timestamp was manipulated to create a false impression of an early leak. Comments and discussions on social media further corroborate that the images in the video were edited, and the date was intentionally modified to suggest a May 4 leak. The screenshots highlight the fabricated nature of the claims made in the video," the NTA affidavit said.

The NTA also informed the Supreme Court that it would depend on the conclusions of the IIT Madras study during the hearing on July 11.

The NEET-UG 2024 examination was held on May 5 by the NTA across hundreds of centers in India for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in government and private institutions. The results were released unexpectedly soon on June 4, ten days ahead of schedule, with 67 toppers this year.