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The scorecards of 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates seeking admission into medical colleges will be scrapped after they were given grace marks for a wrong question, the Centre told the Supreme Court today. The students can opt for a re-test on June 23 and the results will be declared on June 30.
The government's decision follows allegations of massive irregularities and unfair marking in the nationwide medical entrance exams.There were also allegations of distributing the wrong question paper, torn OMR sheets, or delays in distributing OMR sheets.
If these candidates do not take the re-test, their earlier score will be considered the result, without the grace marks.
"A committee meeting was held on June 10, 11, and 12 to investigate the allegations. Based on the committee's recommendations, the scorecards of the affected candidates will be cancelled, and a re-examination will be held for these students," the Centre told the Supreme Court today.
The Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision not to halt the counselling process for NEET-UG 2024. "Counselling will proceed as scheduled and there will be no interruption. If the exam continues, everything else will proceed as well, so there is no cause for concern," the top court said.
The counselling for admissions into MBBS, BDS, and other courses will start on July 6, the Centre said.
Some 24 lakh medical aspirants took the NEET-UG 2024 - an ultra-competitive entrance test for undergraduate medical courses - conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5. The results were to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the answer sheets were evaluated earlier.
But allegations of a question paper leak and grace marks to over 1,500 medical aspirants triggered protests and lawsuits in seven High Courts besides the Supreme Court.
Scores of students protested in Delhi on June 10 seeking an inquiry, and alleging that 67 students shared the top rank because of grace marks.
Petitioners from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh said there was "no defined logic" for the grace marks. The petitions cited "statistically impossible" marks, including students scoring the maximum - 720 of 720.
67 students from one coaching centre secured perfect scores, the petitions pointed out. They also cited a provisional answer key released by the NTA, which was contested by over 13,000 students as the problem pointed to a different answer.
Underscoring the dangers of cheating in a medical test, the petitions said, "This field requires a deep understanding of scientific and medical knowledge... cheating or using unfair means to pass an exam can lead to a lack of competence and endanger lives of patients."
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre and NTA over petitions seeking to cancel the results of the exam.
"It is not that simple... that because you have done it (held the exam) it is sacrosanct," the court told the NTA, "Sanctity of (the examination) has been affected... so we need answers."
The Centre today told the top court: "A committee was set up to review the results of more than 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who received 'grace marks' due to time loss during the exam. The committee has decided to invalidate the scorecards of these candidates, who will now have the option to participate in a re-test."
The Supreme Court said all petitions, including those seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 on account of the allegations, would be taken up on July 8.