Reports of irregularities in NEET-UG exam spur Congress to demand SC-monitored probe

After reports of irregularities in the NEET-UG exam emerged following its results declared on June 4 in which many students scoring perfect marks raised suspicion, the Congress has demanded a high-level investigation into the national competitive medical exam under the Supreme Court’s supervision.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), has denied any such irregularities and cited the changes made in National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks and grace marks for losing time at examination centers behind the students scoring higher marks.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge noted that paper leaks, rigging and corruption have become an integral part of many examinations, including NEET.

“The Modi government is directly responsible for this. For the candidates appearing in recruitment exams, then facing several irregularities, getting caught in the labyrinth of paper leaks, is playing with their futures. The BJP has cheated the youth of the country,” Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X.

“We demand that a high-level investigation should be conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court so that our talented students appearing in NEET and other exams get justice,” he added.
Jairam Ramesh, the Congress general secretary in charge of communications also said the “scam” involving lakhs of candidates is “completely unacceptable and unforgivable”.

“This is a direct gamble with the future of lakhs of candidates of the country, which should be immediately investigated at the high level under the supervision of the Supreme Court,” he said in a post in Hindi on X. 

This time, a record 67 candidates have secured the top rank in the exam of which 6 of them are reportedly from the same examination center. 

Ramesh further raised the question “why was the result deliberately declared on June 4 amid the noise of election results, whereas it was to be declared on 14 June.”

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also took to X and slammed the Narendra Modi government over the alleged irregularities in the exam while calling out for a resolution of the students’ “legitimate complaints” through an investigation.

“First the NEET exam paper was leaked and now the students allege that there has been a scam in its results as well. Serious questions are being raised on six students of the same center getting 720 out of 720 marks and many kinds of irregularities are coming to the fore,” the Congress general secretary said.

The NTA has issued a clarification after uproar over the results, he said and added that the affected students have termed this explanation “superficial” and “unreliable”.

Earlier, a few NEET undergraduate candidates had filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking a re-test of the exam expressing their fear that there was allegedly a paper leak during the last month’s exam.

Incorrect distribution of question papers at an examination center in Rajasthan had led to reports of a paper leak as some candidates left the center with the papers during the NEET exam.

However, the NTA emphasized that the integrity of the examination process was not compromised. The exam for those students was conducted a day later on May 6, the agency said.