The Supreme Court will hear petitions regarding cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 exam. One of the petitions was filed by chief executive of EdTech firm ‘Physics Wallah’, Alakh Pandey, against the alleged “grace marks” given by the National Testing Agency (NTA) to more than 1,500 candidates who took the test for admissions into MBBS, BDS and others courses.
The top court said on Tuesday that the “sanctity” of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG), 2024 has been affected, and sought responses from the Centre and the NTA on another plea seeking holding of the examination afresh on grounds of alleged question paper leaks and other malpractices.
The results of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) was declared on June 4, almost 10 days prior to the scheduled release, with an extraordinary large number of students scoring a percentile of 99.9971. Some secured 718 or 719 out of 720, which many claimed were impossible to get. Aspirants have raised these concerns and alleged irregularities and paper leaks.
On June 1, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court asking that the examination be held again on the ground that the question paper had been leaked. Last month, hearing another petition, the top court had declined to stay the publication of the results.
Around 2.4 million candidates took the entrance examination held on May 5 in 571 cities, 14 of which were outside India. According to the latest available data, there are a total of 1,08,940 MBBS seats in more than 700 medical colleges across the country.
What is the Controversy?
Compensatory Marks: After students filed petitions in the high courts, the NTA formed a Grievance Redressal Committee comprising examination and academic experts who reviewed the complaints based on factual reports and CCTV footage. They confirmed the loss of exam time and compensated 1,563 candidates based on the formula formulated by the Supreme Court in its June 13, 2018 judgment. The revised marks for these candidates ranged from -20 to 720, with two candidates scoring 718 and 719 due to compensatory marks.
Case of 67 Toppers: The number of candidates appearing for NEET (UG) saw a significant increase, rising from 20,38,596 in 2023 to 23,33,297 in 2024. This year, 67 candidates got the perfect 720 out of 720 marks, achieving All India Rank 1. Last year, there were two toppers, and one in 2022. The NTA received 13,373 challenges to the provisional answer key for a Physics question. Forty-four of the 67 toppers got the answer to the basic Physics question wrong but they were given “grace marks” because an older version of NCERT’s Class 12 textbook had a mistake. The experts decided that both the old and new options of NCERT textbook should be considered correct for the question. Consequently, 44 out of the 67 candidates who achieved a perfect score of 720/720 did so due to this revision, while six candidates received compensatory marks for lost time during the exam.
Case of 718, 719 Scores: Many have claimed that it was impossible to score 716, 718 and 719 out of 720. According to an NTA press release, “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 established by the Hon’ble Apex Court, vide its judgment dated 13.06.2018”. It also said, “1,563 candidates were compensated…and the revised marks of such candidates vary from – 20 to 720… Amongst these, the score of two candidates also happens to be 718 and 719 marks respectively due to compensatory marks.”
Unfair Means: The NTA is supporting investigating agencies in cases related to NEET, but has categorically denied any instance of a paper leak. According to the Economic Offences Unit of Bihar Police, admit cards, post-dated cheques and certificates from members of organised gang arrested in this case. Despite a “thorough” investigation underway, the Special Investigation Team has said that the evidence collected so far is not enough to confirm a paper leak. The NTA has confirmed that some Hindi-medium students in Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan were mistakenly given English-medium question papers. They walked out of the examination hall taking the question paper with them, as mentioned in a report by The Indian Express.
High Cut-offs: With more students taking the test, the NTA has kept the cut-offs unusually high this time. “The cut-off scores are determined based on the overall performance of candidates each year. The increase in cutoff reflects the competitive nature of the examination and the higher performance standards achieved by the candidates this year,” the NTA release said. In 2022, when the average marks out of 720 of qualified candidates was 259, the minimum score to qualify in unreserved category was only 117, whereas in 2024, when the first number was 323.55, the cutoff was a high of 164, The Indian Express report said.
Petitions in the Supreme Court
In his petition, Physics Wallah’s Pandey collected representations from about 20,000 students, showing that 70-80 marks were randomly awarded as “grace marks” to at least 1,500 students. His petition is regarding the grace marks awarded to students. Pandey has requested the Supreme Court to establish an expert panel under its supervision to “inquire into the examination process and results of NEET (UG) 2024.”
In another petition, Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) members Abdullah Mohammed Faiz and Dr Shaik Roshan Mohiddin seek to recall the NEET-UG 2024 results and conduct a fresh exam. The petitioners alleged arbitrariness in the granting of grace marks, pointing out that marks as high as 718 and 719 out of 720, secured by several students, were “statistically impossible”. They claimed that the NTA awarding grace marks was a malafide exercise to provide “backdoor entry” to certain students, rather than compensating for “lost time”. The petitioners also raised suspicions about the fact that 67 students from one particular centre obtained full 720 marks. They have demanded a stay on counselling until an investigation into alleged paper leak is not conducted.
In the third petition, NEET candidate Jaripiti Kartheek, challenged the award of grace marks as compensation for the “loss of time during the exam”. He said “normalisation formula” for awarding grace marks should only apply to the number of questions left unanswered in proportion to the lost time, given that each question has equal weightage and assumes equal time distribution for answering each question.
Political Row Over NEET
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 9 over the NEET-UG medical entrance exam, alleging that “irregularities” in the examination have devastated more than 24 lakh students. On X, he posted, “Narendra Modi has not even taken oath yet and the scam in NEET exam has devastated more than 24 lakh students and their families. Six students from the same exam centre top the exam with maximum marks, many get such marks, which are technically not possible, but the government is continuously denying the possibility of paper leak”.
Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called for resolution of students’ “legitimate complaints” through an investigation. “First the NEET exam paper was leaked and now the students allege that there has been a scam in its results as well. Serious questions are being raised on 6 students of the same centre getting 720 out of 720 marks and many kinds of irregularities are coming to the fore,” she said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the NEET exam result.
Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif on June 8 alleged that the NEET exams were conducted after taking money. “The results are such that no student of Maharashtra will get admission for the MBBS course in government or private college in the state,” he said.
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin reiterated his government’s stand on NEET, and said the exam system goes against social justice and federalism. “Trends emerging from the latest NEET results have once again vindicated our principled opposition to the exam. Issues such as question paper leaks, clustering of toppers at specific centres, and award of marks, which are mathematically impossible, under the guise of grace marks highlight the pitfalls of the current Union government’s centralisation,” Stalin wrote on X.
What is NEET?
The exam is pre-qualifying test for MBBS and BDS programmes just like the All India Pre-Medical Entrance Test (AIPMT) held every year. The exams are conducted by the NTA.
Earlier, the Central Bureau of Secondary Examination (CBSE) used to conduct the medical test before NTA took over. The NTA is an independent autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation.
The NEET is conducted every year in May and offers 90,000 seats in MBBS and BDS colleges in India.
A student who wishes to study medical courses needs to have Physics, Chemistry, Biology / Biotechnology as their compulsory subjects in Class 10, and 12, and must have passed these subjects. The candidate has to show their passing certificate at the time of the counselling round. Marks in Mathematics are not considered in NEET-undergraduate exam (NEET-UG).
Besides, the undergraduate courses, NTA also administers NEET post-graduation (NEET-PG), an eligibility-cum-ranking examination prescribed as the single entrance examination for admission to various MD/MS and PG diploma courses.
The NEET exam is conducted online and in 11 languages — English, Hindi, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Marathi, Urdu Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, and Assamese. The examination is conducted for three hours and a candidate needs to answer 180 questions.
