New Delhi: A slew of petitions has been filed in the Supreme Court over the alleged discrepancies in the recently declared results of the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test for the Under Graduate (NEET-UG) medical course admissions that were conducted in May. The petitioners have challenged the result and have sought an urgent hearing for the matter.
One of the petitions states the grant of grace marks was a mala fide exercise by the National Testing Agency to give backdoor entry to certain students. The petitioners have primarily challenged the grace marks granted to certain students over delay during the exam, and have sought to recall the results and conduct of fresh exams for admissions to NEET-UG.
The petitioners have contended that the grant of grace marks was arbitrary and it is statistically impossible to score marks as high as 718 & 719 out of 720 that were secured by several students.
The petitions further question how 67 students from one particular Centre got full 720 marks. It also states that there are several complaints about the provisional answer key being published on April 29 by NTA.
The petitioners further highlighted the widespread complaints of question paper leaks in the exam held on May 5.
It may be noted that on May 17, the Supreme Court issued notice on a petition seeking the cancellation of the test on the grounds of a paper leak. However, the top court had refused to stay the results.
Abdullah Mohammed Faiz from Telangana and Dr Shaik Roshan Mohiddin from Andhra Pradesh who claim to be working for the benefit of students have filed this petition. Another petition has been filed by one Jaripate Karthik, from the state of Andhra Pradesh who is a NEET aspirant himself. He has also challenged National Testing Agency (NTA) action giving compensatory marks to 1536 candidates on the grounds of ‘loss of time.’
The petitioners have now sought a stay of the counselling to be conducted for NEET-UG 2024 admissions till the investigation into the alleged paper leak is completed.
They have further demanded the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the matter.
On June 8, the NTA and the Union Education Ministry announced that a four-member committee would review the results of over 1,500 candidates who were awarded grace marks to compensate for the loss of time.
Last week, the Calcutta High Court also sought NTA’s response to a plea alleging irregularities in the conduct of the exam.
