NEET Result Scam LIVE: Delhi High Court Postpones Hearing of Plea To Halt Counselling To July 5

 Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated that there are cases in the Supreme Court as well as in several High Courts. We will file a transfer petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of NTA to have all the cases heard together. He mentioned that there are three main issues in this matter:

First, grace marks
Second, an incorrect question
Third, paper leak.

Moreover, the hearing has been postponed to July 5.

SG Mehta stated, "We are filing a transfer petition and will request the court to transfer all pending petitions from the high courts to the Supreme Court for a consolidated hearing." The petitioner's lawyer urged the court to halt the counselling process. However, Mehta countered by pointing out that the Supreme Court had already addressed this issue yesterday and had not imposed a stay on the counselling process.

The Delhi High Court has begun hearing a petition against the NEET exam. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court that petitions regarding the NEET exam and results are pending in seven different high courts across the country. Additionally, several petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court, some of which are expected to be heard tomorrow.

“Few Writ Petitions were filed by the candidates of NEET (UG) -2024 before the Hon’ble High Courts for loss of exam time in the NEET (UG) - 2024 exam at few Centres. Accordingly, a Grievance Redressal Committee was formed which considered the grievances/representations based on factual reports of the functionaries and CCTV footage from concerned exam Centres. To compensate for the loss of time, such candidates were compensated with compensatory marks,” NTA responded.

The principal of Hardayal Public School, Anshu Yadav, has addressed the recent controversy surrounding the exceptional NEET scores achieved by the school's students. Six students from the school scored a perfect 720 out of 720, while two others scored 718 and 719. She emphasized that the examination was conducted under strict surveillance, with CCTV cameras from both the school and the NTA monitoring the proceedings. "The top-scoring students were seated under different cameras," she added, sharing the seating charts to substantiate her claim.

Read full story here.

“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 in W.P. 551 of 2018. 1563 candidates were compensated for the loss of time.Due to the compensatory marks, two candidates happened to secure 718 and 719 marks,” NTA explained.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has provided detailed explanations for the significant rise in perfect scores in the NEET (UG) 2024 examination. Several factors contributed to this increase, as outlined in a recent FAQ released by the NTA.

The NTA received 13,373 challenges to the provisional answer key for a specific Physics question. Subject experts found discrepancies between the old and new editions of the NCERT textbook. Initially, only one option was considered correct, but after review, it was determined that two options should be accepted as correct. This revision, addressing the ambiguities, resulted in increased marks for many candidates.

Additionally, out of the 67 candidates who scored a perfect 720/720, 44 benefited from the revised answer key for the Physics question, and 6 received compensatory marks due to loss of examination time. The compensatory marks were awarded following a Supreme Court-established mechanism to ensure fairness for those affected by time loss during the exam. Read full story here.

"At one of the Examination Centres, i.e. Girl’s Higher Secondary  Model School, Mandir, Mantown, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan,  there was an incident of incorrect distribution of Question Papers (QPs). It was found that the Centre Superintendent had mistakenly distributed QPs intended for Hindi medium candidates to those 
taking the English medium exam, and vice versa. This led to agitation by some candidates, who left the examination center with question papers, despite efforts by the Centre Staff to prevent them from doing the same. It was also found that copies of this Question Paper were circulated on social media at around 4.25 P.M., creating an impression that QP was leaked before the commencement of the examination. It is to emphasize that, even though the QP was taken out by some 
students and circulated on the Internet, there is no way any external person/agency could access the centres, once the examination started. Moreover, all Centres were under CCTV surveillance," NTA said.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has released a comprehensive FAQ addressing concerns about discrepancies and alleged paper leaks following the NEET (UG) 2024 results. NTA denied paper leak allegations.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Rajasthan High Court by Keshav Pareek, alleging significant irregularities, arbitrariness, and malpractices by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in conducting NEET (UG) 2024. Pareek's PIL asserts that the NTA failed to take appropriate action to address these concerns.

According to the petition, the NTA initially accepted online applications for NEET (UG) 2024 from February 9 to March 9, 2024. For the first time in NEET's history, the NTA reopened the application portal on April 8, 2024, which Pareek claims raised suspicions about the process.

Founder of Goal Institute, Bipin Kumar Singh told Republic, -"Such alleged practices can demoralise students in future. If allegations are proven true. Then the exam must stand cancelled. Students who work very hard feel depressed when such things happen."
 

Founder of Goal Institute, Bipin Kumar Singh told Republic, - such alleged practices can demoralise student in future. If allegations are proven true. Then the exam must stand cancelled. Students who work very hard feel depressed when such things happen.  

Parents and students are going to protest at Jantar Mantar at 12 pm regarding NEET irregularities

The plea stated, “On 03.06.2024, the respondent (NTA) published the final answer key. It was observed that for question no. 29 of Test Booklet Code R5, both options 2 and 4 were considered correct, contrary to the instructions that stated only one option could be correct… Not awarding marks in case of a wrong question and forcing candidates to mark one, in the case of a question having two correct answers, is antithetical to the instruction that only one answer shall be right. It is submitted that it is extremely arbitrary for the respondent to expect candidates to attempt a wrong question, when there is negative marking and each mark can make a difference of hundreds of ranks, if not thousands."

The plea stated that the results declared were “arbitrary”, and based on unfair “grace marks” given to various candidates, without the application of mind.
 

The plea was moved by a 17-year-old NEET-UG candidate concerning a question that had two correct options in the answer key. The plea sought that equal marks be awarded to those who did not attempt the question as has been done for those who attempted either of the two correct answers.

 

Delhi High Court will hear plea challenging NTA's NEET UG grace mark policy decision today. .

In response to the ongoing NEET result controversy, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra expressed her concerns on X (formerly Twitter). She highlighted that not only was the NEET exam paper leaked, but students are now alleging a scam in the results. "Serious questions are being raised over 6 students from the same centre getting 720 out of 720 marks, and various irregularities are coming to light," she posted. Vadra also pointed out the distressing reports of numerous students committing suicide across the country after the results were announced, describing the situation as both "very sad and shocking."

MK Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu—a state with a long history of opposing the NEET—reiterated that his party was the first to foresee the examination's disadvantages.

Opposition politicians have seized on the NEET exam controversy. Rahul Gandhi of the Congress, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, and Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party have criticized the government. Rahul Gandhi declared on social media that he would voice the students' concerns in Parliament and address issues related to their future.

A four-member committee has been formed to review the issue. The NTA stated that a final decision, including the possibility of a re-examination, will be made after the committee submits its report, expected within a week.

NTA's Director-General explained in a press conference last week that the decision to award grace marks was based on a committee's recommendation. The marks were given to candidates who experienced time loss due to the distribution of incorrect question papers and/or torn OMR sheets.

The Supreme Court of India issued a notice to the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday in response to a petition seeking the cancellation of the NEET UG result. The court acknowledged that the integrity of the medical entrance examination has been compromised. However, the Supreme Court did not halt the counselling process for undergraduate medical admissions.

The court remarked, "Sanctity has been affected, we need answers," and combined the petition filed by 10 NEET candidates with a pending petition, scheduling the hearing for July 8.

Students across India are demanding cancellation of NEET UG 2024 that was held on May 5 alleging paper leak and irregularities.