New Delhi:

The Supreme Court has directed the National Testing Agency – the under-fire central body responsible for the conduct of the NEET-UG test – to “rectify deficiencies in the exam system”, including using technology to identify faults in its cybersecurity profile to prevent paper leaks.

The court also told the NTA to avoid “flip-flops” in the context of the NEET exam, which was held on May 5 but ran into trouble a month later, when results were declared. Such “flip-flops” do not serve students’ interests, the court told the agency.

“We have highlighted all deficiencies in the structural processes… this we cannot afford for the betterment of the students,” the court said Friday morning.

The bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud has given the centre’s committee – a seven-member panel led by ex-ISRO chief Dr K Radhakrishnan and including former AIIMS (Delhi) Director Dr Randeep Guleria – time till September 30 to present its report. The committee has been tasked with analysing the entire examination process and suggest changes to make it more efficient.

“Report of committee to be submitted by September 30 to the government. Ministry of Education shall report compliance of committee and decision to implement (measures) in two weeks.”

The court offered eight points to guide the committee, including laying out a standard operating procedure, or protocol, for conduct of qualifying exams, a review of process of allotting exam centres and enhanced identity checks of candidates, and CCTV monitoring of exam centres.

Another point was to ensure “secure logistics providers for ensuring non-tampering of question papers”; this is crucial given the 2024 NEET-UG exam papers may have been leaked while they were being transported – in locked boxes – from where they were printed to the exam centres.

On the larger question of leaked exam papers, the court said it was satisfied “there was no systemic breach… the leak was limited to Patna (in Bihar) and Hazaribagh (in Jharkhand)”.

The Hazaribagh leak has been flagged as ‘Ground Zero’ by the CBI, which has been tasked with investigating a nation-wide ‘solver gang’ racket that leaks question papers. The agency has made multiple arrests since, including a man called Rakesh Ranjan, alias Rocky, the alleged kingpin.

READ | CBI Arrests ‘Rocky’, Alleged Mastermind In NEET Paper Leak Case

The central agency has also filed its first chargesheet in this case. It has named 13 people, including four candidates, a junior engineer and two individuals labelled as ‘kingpins’.

READ | Candidates, Parents, ‘Kingpins’ Named In CBI’s 1st NEET Chargesheet

Stating parents of some students had also been named, officials said the agency would file at least one supplementary chargesheet as investigations proceed.

The Chief Justice also observed there is a need to have counselling programmes to ensure mental welfare of students, as well as training for staff and management to handle such concerns.

“Can’t Conclude Sanctity Breached”

Last week the court ruled out a full re-test. Hearing a clutch of petitions asking for the exam to be held again, the court said it was not satisfied there was a large-scale breach of its “sanctity”.

READ | No NEET Re-Exam, Court Says “Can’t Conclude Sanctity Breached”

The court admitted the paper had been leaked but said there was no material on record to conclude “the result of the exam was vitiated”. “Data on record is not indicative of a systemic leak of the question paper, which would lead to the destruction of the sanctity of the exam…” the court said.

“The court is (also) mindful of the fact directing a fresh exam would have serious consequences on students, including destruction of admission schedule, effects on education, and availability of medical professionals in the future.”

The controversy over the exam, held May 5, broke after red flags were raised over the number – 67 – of perfect scores, including a coaching centre in Haryana’s Bahadurgarh that produced six on its own.

There were also questions over the award of ‘grace marks’ for 1,563 students.

A retest for those 1,563 was held, but hundreds did not appear and many of those who did scored significantly fewer marks. This included the six from the Haryana centre; they got only 682 this time.

There was also a separate row over two ‘correct’ answers for one question in the Physics section.

READ | The NEET Question Court Asked IIT To Solve, And What They Answered

The Supreme Court referred the question to experts from IIT (Delhi). Subsequently, students who had picked what the experts said was the incorrect answer lost four marks. At least 44 students, who chose the alternative answer, received “grace marks” and achieved a perfect score of 720/720.

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New Delhi:

The 2024 NEET-UG – for entrance to undergraduate medical courses – can only be conducted again if the “sanctity” of the test held on May 5 was “lost on a large scale” as a result of leaked questions the Supreme Court said Thursday morning as it heard over 40 petitions asking for a re-test.

The remark was an echo of observations made last week, when the court said the “sanctity” of the examination had been affected and it demanded answers from the authorities. The court then advised petitioners against a re-test and said certain circumstances would argue against that measure.

The court also heard petitions from the under-fire NTA – the National Testing Agency, the central body responsible for the conduct of competitive exams – seeking transfer of cases filed by various state police forces to the respective High Courts to avoid potential duplication and confusion.

“You have to show us that the leak was systematic… that it affected the entire examination… so as to warrant cancellation of the entire exam…” a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said, “Merely because, of 23 lakh (students) only one lakh will get admission… we cannot order a re-examination.”

“Second, tell us what should be the direction of the investigation in this matter.”

“If we accept your wider submission (that leaked question papers compromised the exam results) we would also like your assistance on the lines on which the investigation must happen.”

The court also pointed out it may be unfeasible to identify and “segregate” the hundreds, or thousands, of students who may have conspired to access questions beforehand.

‘1.08 Lakh vs 24 Lakh’ Question

On the numbers of petitioners – seen as crucial to establish the strength of petitions seeking cancellation – the NTA responded, “There are 131 not within the 1.08 lakh (students selected for admission to private colleges) who want a re-test and there are 254 who are opposing the re-test.”

The question of data and how to analyse this data was an early bone of contention, with senior advocate Narender Hooda, for the petitioners, complaining of a “handicap”.

“I am starting with a handicap. I do not have the results… because of that I cannot have the data analytics,” he told the court, as he also pointed out a possible conflict of interest. He said, “One of the Directors of IIT Madras is a member of the governing body of the NTA…”

Appearing for the agency, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta countered quickly. “This is factually wrong. Somebody else was…” he said, and explained, “Governing body has no role in conduct of exam.”

On IIT Madras’ Data Analysis

Returning to the question of analytics, Mr Hooda argued it would be difficult to establish variances given a data set as large as all students who took the exam, i.e., nearly 24 lakh. The NTA, in a written submission to the court last night, said data analysed by IIT Madras showed mark distribution followed a bell-shaped curve normal to any large-scale examination, and indicated no abnormality.

READ | Why So Many NEET-UG Toppers? Exam Body’s Reply In Court

The report also acknowledged the “overall increase in marks obtained… specifically in the range of 550 to 720… across cities and centres” and attributed it to a “25 per cent reduction in syllabus”.

Mr Hooda, however, said that report was based on the figure of nearly 24 lakh and that the analysis should have been carried out on the 1.08 lakh students who passed the examination.

“Data analytics was run for 23 lakh students… but at what stage, if 10,000 or 20,000 (cheated) can you detect abnormality? The correct procedure was to apply this to 1.08 lakh…”

“The (bell-shape) curve is no indication there is no abnormality because the data is too large… which cannot be caught. Granular variations can’t be seen with this large data…” he insisted.

100 Toppers

Mr Hooda also demanded the NTA release data for the top 100 ranks and not just the top 17; the IIT Madras report showed a city-wise list, which showed the maximum (five) came from Bengaluru, with four from Lucknow and three each from Kota in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu’s Namakkal.

The Chief Justice subsequently read out the list of top 100 students, which showed there were nine toppers from Rajasthan alone and six from Bahadurgarh in Haryana.

Mr Hooda pointed out what he said was an anomaly, but the NTA said the list’s purpose “is to show toppers are spread over… that there is no abnormal spike in any particular centre.”

NEET-UG Controversy

Controversy over the 2024 NEET-UG exam – attended by nearly 24 lakh aspiring medical professionals – broke last month after allegations the question paper had been leaked – subsequent inquiries indicated the leak was orchestrated by a national ‘solver gang’ network – on social media.

The first red flags were the unusually high number of perfect scores; a record 67 students, including six from one coaching centre, scored a maximum 720. Questions were also asked over the award of ‘grace marks’ – not exam protocol, according to the authorities – to 1,563 students.

In an affidavit filed last week, the government, referring to the analysis by IIT Madras insisted there is no indication of “mass malpractice” nor evidence that some candidates had benefitted from cheating.

READ | CBI Arrests ‘Rocky’, Alleged Mastermind In NEET-UG Paper Leak Case

The CBI has been tasked with investigating this case and has filed six cases and arrested nine people so far. Last week Rakesh Ranjan, alias Rocky, who is seen as one of the ringleaders, was arrested.

The incident also triggered a political row, with the Congress-led opposition attacking the ruling BJP in Parliament, forcing ruckus and chaos as MPs debated the Motion of Thanks to President Droupadi Murmu’s joint address.

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