NEET grace marks scrapped, re-test option for affected students: Centre to court
The National Testing Agency (NTA) informed the Supreme Court on Thursday.
That a committee has been established to reevaluate the results of more than 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who were awarded “grace marks.” These marks were intended to compensate for the time lost during the examination.
The committee has made the decision to cancel the scorecards of these 1,563 candidates. As a remedy, these students will be given the option to take a re-test. The re-examination is scheduled for June 23, and the results will be declared before June 30, according to the NTA’s submission to the top court.
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court was hearing petitions, including one from Alakh Pandey, the CEO of education technology firm Physics Wallah, regarding alleged irregularities in NEET-UG 2024.
Counsel for the Centre told the vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that the NTA panel found awarding compensatory marks to 1,563 students due to loss of time created a “skewed situation”, as these marks were limited to unattempted questions.
After reviewing the situation, the committee recommended cancelling the scorecards of these students and notifying them of their actual marks without the grace marks.
Following these submissions, the court said in its order, “It has been suggested that the score-cards of the affected 1,563 candidates issued on June 4, 2024 will stand cancelled and withdrawn. These students will be informed of their actual scores. They will be given an option to appear for a re-examination. Results of the students who do not wish to appear for the re-examination will be based on their exam held on May 5.”
During the hearing, the top court reiterated that it will not halt the NEET-UG 2024 counseling process. “Counseling will proceed as planned,” the court said, noting that any disruption to the exam process would have broader implications.
‘TRUST ISSUE WITH NTA’
Physics Wallah CEO Alakh Pandey said after the hearing that the NTA had admitted before the court that the grace marks it awarded were wrong, which threw up questions about other irregularities in the exam.
“Today, NTA accepted in front of the Supreme Court that the grace marks given to the students were wrong and they agree that this created dissatisfaction among the students and they agreed that they will remove the grace marks…. The question is if NTA has other discrepancies that we are unaware of. So, there is a trust issue with NTA,” Pandey said.
‘NO EVIDENCE OF PAPER LEAK’
Meanwhile, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan rejected allegations of paper leak in NEET-UG 2024. “There is no evidence of paper leak in NEET-UG. The allegations of corruption in NTA are unfounded, it is a very credible body,” Pradhan said.
“The Supreme Court is hearing the matter and we will abide by its decision. We will ensure no student is at a disadvantage,” he added.
The May 5 exam, conducted by NTA across 4,750 centres for nearly 24 lakh students, has been plagued by accusations of question paper leaks and the awarding of questionable grace marks. These allegations have sparked protests and legal challenges in seven high courts and the Supreme Court.
Adding to the concerns, an unprecedented 67 students achieved a perfect score of 720, with six hailing from a single centre in Faridabad, Haryana. This has fuelled suspicions of cheating.
Scores of students in Delhi protested on June 10 demanding an investigation into the alleged irregularities. Some claim the awarded grace marks unfairly contributed to the high number of top scorers.