The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the decision to give grace marks to 1,563 National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG), 2024 candidates for admission to MBBS, BDS and others courses has been cancelled and they will be given an option to take a re-test on June 23.
The apex court, instead of reserving the judgement, dictates operative parts and says there is an urgent need to provide certainty and finality to the dispute which affects the career of over 2 million students.
National Testing Agency (NTA) officials reported that 813 of the 1,563 candidates appeared for the retest while the others opted for the marks without the grace.
The Supreme Court will hear on Monday a batch of pleas related to the controversy-ridden medical entrance exam National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024, including those alleging irregularities and malpractices in the May 5 test and seeking a direction to conduct it afresh.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested a Zilla Parishad school teacher from Latur in Maharashtra and registered a case against four persons after it emerged that a racket was being operated to help NEET students willing to pay money to crack the exam, police said on Monday.
There have been allegations of inflation of marks in NEET-UG which has led to a record 67 candidates sharing top rank with perfect score.
'I do not think the scam is limited to 1,563 students. The number is too low to have caused such an inflation in the marks'
The Centre said the data analytics of results of NEET-UG 2024 show the marks distribution follows the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any large-scale examination indicating no abnormality.
An analysis of data indicated that while the candidates who allegedly benefitted from the paper leak and other irregularities have not done well, some centres have a high concentration of well-performing students.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday rejected allegations of paper leak in medical entrance exam National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG), saying there is no evidence of it.
The National Testing Agency, under fire over the lapses in the conduct of NEET and UGC-NET, is gearing up to conduct on Sunday a retest for the medical entrance exam for 1,563 candidates who were earlier awarded grace marks to make up for the loss of time at six centres.
"The re-revised score cards are live now," a senior NTA official said.
A day after the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test was cancelled, Education Ministry officials Thursday said no complaints were received about the exam but a suo motu action was taken on the basis of inputs available with them to protect students' interest.
Stressing that every question paper has been "accounted for", the NTA said that purported images of the question paper circulating on social media have no relation with the actual paper.
The Centre on Saturday night announced that the probe into alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET will be handed over to the CBI for a comprehensive investigation.
The NTA denied any irregularities and said the changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres were some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks.
The agency seized documents like answer sheets, OMR codes, hand-written notes related to IDs and names of candidates apart from their education certificates, the sources said.
It added that in any examination, there are competing rights that are created whereby the interests of a large number of students who have taken the examination without adopting any unfair means must not also be jeopardised.
The Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) had on Thursday told the Supreme Court they had cancelled the grace marks given to 1,563 candidates who took the examination for admission to MBBS and other such courses.
The Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit, which is probing the alleged National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) paper leak case, on Saturday claimed to have obtained reference question papers of the test conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) and planned to compare these with documents recovered from a flat in Patna during a search operation last month.
Gandhi said Modi's top priority now is to get his Speaker in Parliament and is not bothered about NEET .
The petition, filed by 20 students who had appeared for the medical entrance exam, has also sought a direction to the National Testing Agency (NTA) and others to conduct the test afresh.
They said the agency is also taking steps to bring under its ambit cases registered in various states by the police.
Observing that students have to labour hard while preparing for these examinations, the apex court said the litigation pertaining to the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate)-2024 examination ought not be treated as adversarial.
The National Testing Agency is facing criticism on social media for alleged errors in the answer keys for the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) Main Session 2, 2025.
The NTA had treated the two options as correct answers to the Physics question and had granted four marks to those examinees who had marked these options.
The top court took note of the submissions of some aspirants that a question related to an "atom" and its characteristics had two correct answers and a set of examinees, who gave one particular answer out of the two correct ones, were awarded four marks.
The DMK will not stop till Tamil Nadu got exemption from the central qualifying test, Stalin said.
rediffGURU Radheshyam Zanwar offers expert advice to students preparing for engineering college admissions and competitive exams.
'They made so many toppers in NEET that automatically the paper leak issue got exposed.' 'The first mistake they did was announcing 67 toppers in NEET. No way this figure was possible.' 'The maximum numbers of toppers that you can have are two or three at best every year.'
The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday night announced the new dates of cancelled and postponed examinations, including the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test, amid a raging row over alleged irregularities in their conduct.
There were strong indications that the minister may announce the cancellation of the exam and action against NTA DG Subodh Kumar Singh, who was summoned by the ministry earlier in the day.
The deaths brought back the focus on NEET in the state, with all political parties but for the BJP opposed to the qualifying exam.
Congress leader Ajoy Kumar alleged the Centre gambled with these competitive examinations by asking the NTA to conduct those.
The 'top leadership' of the National Testing Agency is under the scanner over alleged irregularities in competitive exams National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test and National Eligibility Test, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday even as he denied any paper leak in the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-University Grants Commission NET, which was postponed a day ago.
The real battle for NEET abolition can take much more time and energy, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Fear of upcoming NEET examinations has allegedly led a girl student to die by suicide at her residence in Coimbatore, the police said on Wednesday.
Telangana's Mrinal Kutteri, Delhi's Tanmay Gupta and Maharashtra's Karthika G Nair shared the top rank, scoring 720 out of 720. Eight transgender candidates have also cleared the examination.
The Bills adopted in 2017 for the same purpose during the AIADMK regime did not get the President's assent.
Amid a row over irregularities in competitive exams National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and National Eligibility Test (NET), the education ministry on Saturday notified a seven-member panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan to ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations through the National Testing Agency (NTA).
