NEW DELHI, JUNE 08, 2024: As the controversy over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG results intensified across the country, the National Testing Authority (NTA) on Saturday announced setting up a four-member high-powered committee to review the results of more than 1,500 candidates in six centres who received grace marks in the exams.
Amid allegations of irregularities in the marking process, the Ministry of Education has constituted a four-member high-powered committee to look into the issue of grace marks being awarded to more than 1,500 of the 23 lakh candidates who appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG 2024) in May this year.
The announcement was made at a press conference here by Subodh Kumar Singh, director general of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which administers the pre-medical test. Since the NEET-UG 2024 results were declared on 4 June, several students have flagged what they termed gross discrepancies in this year’s results which led to 67 students sharing the top rank, including six from the same exam centre in Haryana.
The NEET (UG) 2024 Examination was conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on 5th May 2024 at 4750 Centres in 571 cities (including 14 cities abroad). The National Testing Agency (NTA) has been conducting NEET (UG) Examination on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) since May 2019, as a uniform Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test for admission to undergraduate medical courses (MBBS, BDS, etc.) in all Medical Institutions across the country.
Concerns After the Declaration of NEET(UG) Results
The Results of the Examination were announced by NTA on 4th June, 2024. Ever since the results were announced, concerns have arisen over the unexpectedly high cut-off scores, compensatory marks and the number of candidates achieving perfect scores (720/720). Concerns have also been expressed about the presence of eight toppers at one centre (including six perfect scorers and one each with scores of 718 and 719) i.e. all eight candidates are assumed to have taken the examination from one Centre only. Concerns have also been raised on early declaration of the Result which coincided with the date of declaration of results of General Elections, i.e., 4th June. It has been alleged that the Results were announced ten days in advance.
NTA’s Stand
Regarding declaration of NEET UG Results on 4th June, 2024 instead of 14th June, 2024 as announced in the Information Bulletin, NTA has taken a position that since the results were ready by June 4, 2024, there was no reason to delay the announcement by another ten days. Moreover, NTA has been working towards improving the result declaration time from year to year. As regards the Cut offs, they vary depending on relative performance of candidates.
Regarding, high number of perfect scorers, i.e. 720/720, it has been found that there are 67 candidates with full marks this year. However, 44 of these 67 are attributed to revision of one Physics Answer Key, for which now two options have been taken as correct.
Grace Marks for loss of time
NTA has informed that Writ Petitions were filed by the candidates of NEET (UG) 2024 before the Hon’ble High Court of Punjab & Haryana, Delhi, and Chhattisgarh, raising concerns of loss of exam time during the conduct of NEET (UG) 2024 on 05.05.2024, at few Exam Centres. Candidates had stated that they did not get the full 3 hours and 20 minutes to complete the exam at these centres, reasons ranging from wrong distribution of Question Papers, torn OMRs in some cases etc.
Therefore, a Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) consisting of experts from the field of examination and academia, was constituted by NTA to look into such grievances/representations and to submit its recommendations. NTA submitted in the Courts that representations of the candidates will be decided on the basis of recomendations of the GRC.
The Committee considered the grievances/representations on the basis of factual reports of the functionaries and CCTV footages from concerned exam Centres. The loss of examination time was ascertained and such candidates were compensated with marks based on their answering efficiency and time lost, as per the mechanism/ formula used by the Hon’ble Apex Court, vide its judgment dated 13.06.2018 in W.P. 551 of 2018.
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