The opposition caused repeated disruptions in Parliament Friday over the NEET paper leak issue, with both Houses being adjourned for the day without transacting much business apart from the Rajya Sabha taking up the Motion of Thanks for the President's address amid protests including by the Biju Janata Dal, which almost always supported the BJP in the previous Lok Sabha.
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.
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.
They have sought a direction from the top court to the Union education ministry to probe, identify and take strict action against students and others who indulged in unfair practices like paper leak and impersonation in the NEET-UG exam conducted on May 5 this year.
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.
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.
At least 52 percent -- 813 out of 1,563 candidates -- appeared for the retest on Sunday, said NTA.
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 plea challenges the alleged award of grace marks on account of loss of time apparently due to several reasons. The petition is yet to be listed for hearing.
Yadvendu claimed that he demanded Rs 40 lakh from each aspirant, including his nephew Anurag Yadav, for providing the leaked question paper on May 4, a day before the exam.
The Congress's student and youth wings took to the streets in the national capital on Thursday over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG and UGC-NET exams, with NSUI members forcefully entering the NTA headquarters and locking its office, and the IYC staging a huge protest at Jantar Mantar.
"The re-revised score cards are live now," a senior NTA official said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has identified 144 candidates who had allegedly paid to get National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) leaked and solved papers hours before they were to take the examination for admissions in medical colleges, officials said on Monday.
The top court said since the remit of the panel has been expanded, the committee would submit its report by September 30 on various measures to rectify deficiencies in the examination system.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday made its first arrests in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) paper leak case, taking two people in custody in Patna while three candidates in Gujarat who had allegedly solicited help to clear the exam recorded their statements with the probe agency, officials said.
The agency is under criticism amid allegations of irregularities and inflation of marks in the crucial medical entrance exam.
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.
Gandhi said Modi's top priority now is to get his Speaker in Parliament and is not bothered about NEET .
Congress leader Ajoy Kumar alleged the Centre gambled with these competitive examinations by asking the NTA to conduct those.
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).
Rao suggested changes should also be brought in the evaluation methods and pitched for introduction of an open-book examination system for competitive examinations designed to test the candidates' "competence, aptitude, attitude and Intelligence Quotient".
Parliament is set to witness heated debates on a range of issues like the NEET paper leak row, the Agnipath initiative and inflation when both houses reconvene on Monday.
The notification of the Act comes just a day after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was asked when the legislation would be implemented. The minister had said the law ministry was framing the rules.
'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.'
Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday expressed anguish over Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge trooping into the Well of the House during an opposition protest, saying it is for the first time that a person occupying the post has engaged in such conduct.
Here is an explainer on the functioning of the seven-year-old body.
The Centre on Monday made public the rules under the recently-notified anti-paper leak law, mandating the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to prepare norms, standards and guidelines for the computer-based tests among others.
