The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, will hear a series of petitions today demanding a re-conduct of the NEET-UG 2024 exam. The petitions cite allegations of paper leaks and other malpractices, affecting over 2.3 million candidates who took the exam.
NEET UG 2024 Controversy
Conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5, NEET-UG 2024 has faced allegations of question paper leaks and inflated scores, sparking nationwide protests and political debates. The results, declared on June 4, showed an unprecedented 67 candidates achieving perfect scores of 720, with some from the same exam centre. The controversy led to the replacement of the NTA head by the Union Government.
Government And NTA's Stance
On Friday, the Union government filed an affidavit opposing the re-conduct of the exam, arguing that it would disrupt the academic calendar and is unnecessary due to the lack of widespread evidence of malpractice. The affidavit, filed through the Ministry of Education, stated, “In the absence of any proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in a pan-India examination, it would not be rational to scrap the entire examination and the results already declared.”
The Supreme Court, in a previous hearing on June 18, underscored the need to maintain the integrity of the examination process, highlighting the importance of addressing even minimal negligence by the NTA.
Perfect Scores And Grace Marks
NTA clarified that the perfect scores achieved by 67 candidates were due to the reduced syllabus caused by the pandemic. Additionally, the Centre proposed withdrawing scorecards issued to 1,563 students who received grace marks due to time lost during the May 5 test. These students were given the option to appear for a fresh exam on June 23, but only 48% chose to retake the test, while the rest retained their scores without the grace marks. None of the candidates could score full marks during the re-exam. This reduced the number of toppers to 61 from 67.
