New Delhi: The scorecards of 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates seeking admission into medical colleges will be scrapped after they were given grace marks for a wrong question, the Centre told the Supreme Court today.
The students can opt for a re-test on June 23 and the results will be declared on June 30.
The government’s decision follows allegations of massive irregularities and unfair marking in the nationwide medical entrance exams.
If these candidates do not take the re-test, their earlier score will be considered the result, without the grace marks.
“A committee meeting was held on June 10, 11, and 12 to investigate the allegations. Based on the committee’s recommendations, the scorecards of the affected candidates will be cancelled, and a re-examination will be held for these students,” the Centre told the Supreme Court today.
The Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision not to halt the counselling process for NEET-UG 2024. “Counselling will proceed as scheduled and there will be no interruption. If the exam continues, everything else will proceed as well, so there is no cause for concern,” the top court said.
67 students from one coaching centre secured perfect scores, the petitions pointed out. They also cited a provisional answer key released by the NTA, which was contested by over 13,000 students as the problem pointed to a different answer.
Underscoring the dangers of cheating in a medical test, the petitions said, “This field requires a deep understanding of scientific and medical knowledge… cheating or using unfair means to pass an exam can lead to a lack of competence and endanger lives of patients.”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre and NTA over petitions seeking to cancel the results of the exam.
“It is not that simple… that because you have done it (held the exam) it is sacrosanct,” the court told the NTA, “Sanctity of (the examination) has been affected… so we need answers.”
The Centre today told the top court: “A committee was set up to review the results of more than 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who received ‘grace marks’ due to time loss during the exam. The committee has decided to invalidate the scorecards of these candidates, who will now have the option to participate in a re-test.”