Students and parents at a NEET exam centre in Chennai
| Photo Credit: R. Ragu

A student in Gujarat who allegedly failed her board exams in March has hit the headlines for her stellar performance in the NEET-UG medical entrance exam.

Not willing to give up, she took a second shot in June in the subjects she couldn’t clear. However, she barely performed any better in the supplementary exams, which has left her ineligible for college, reported the Times of India.

#NEET_SCAM

Neet exam में 705 नंबर पाने वाला फ़िज़िक्स/केमिस्ट्री में फेल

Neet aspirants के अभ्यर्थियों को न्याय दो@yadavakhilesh@myogiadityanath@narendramodipic.twitter.com/oRylDOxwbH

— Dr Avdhesh Yadav (@Avdheshyadavsp) June 10, 2024

The student secured an all-India rank of 1,321 in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)-UG, having scored 705 out of 720 in NEET. Her NEET score put her in the top 99.94 percentile, which typically gets a student a seat in one of the top medical colleges.

All aspiring doctors are required to clear this exam to get into medical courses across the country, though board marks also hold weight.

In the March board exam, she managed only 31 (out of 100) marks in chemistry (theory) and 21 in physics (theory) in the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Board (GSEB) exam. She barely passed in biology (theory) with 39 marks, her marksheet showed.

In her supplementary exams, she scored 22 in physics and got just the passing marks of 33 in chemistry. Her boards and NEET marksheets went viral after the centre-wise and city-wise NEET-UG results were declared – both having the same first, middle, and last names.

Her NEET results will not help her get a seat in any medical college in the country due to her poor marks in board exams. Her NEET score has also come under scrutiny amid allegations of paper leak and grace marks awarded to some students in the NEET exam this year.

According to a complaint, a total of 1,500 students were given grace marks. The National Testing Agency (NTA), tasked with conducting the nationwide exam, had formed a grievance redressal panel which had awarded grace marks to the students.

The government later scrapped the grace marks, which reduced the student’s NEET score to 700.

With inputs from Mahendra Prasad

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 Supreme Court will today pronounce its judgment containing reasons for not canceling the 2024 NEET-UG medical entrance exam, despite a raging controversy over paper allegations and other irregularities in the exam.

Here are 10 updates on the big story:

Bengaluru:

The Karnataka Cabinet that met on Monday night under the leadership of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has given its approval for adopting three resolutions, including one against the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), PTI reported quoting official sources.

The other two resolutions are said to be against ‘One Nation, One Election’ and delimitation of constituencies for the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies.

The resolutions are likely to be tabled during the ongoing legislature session, probably on Tuesday itself, the sources said.

The cabinet is also said to have cleared the ‘Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill 2024’.

A four-member committee led by former chief secretary B S Patil, formed to restructure the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, submitted its report to the government earlier this month.

In the draft bill, the committee is said to have proposed the creation of a Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) with planning and financial powers to govern the city, and it also provides for multiple corporations and makes provision for up to 400 wards.

Amid the ongoing controversy on NEET, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had recently urged the Centre to scrap the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, and allow states to conduct their own entrance tests.

The High-level Committee on Simultaneous Elections constituted under the chairmanship of Former President Ram Nath Kovind had submitted its report on ‘One Nation, One Election’ to President Droupadi Murmu in March.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier said that the census and delimitation processes will begin soon after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The National Testing Agency (NTA) in its written submission to the Supreme Court last night, reiterated that there has been no systematic failure concerning the NEET UG examination controversy. The response comes amid allegations of unprecedented high marks among top candidates, prompting concerns about potential fraud and systemic issues within the exam’s administration.

The NTA categorically denied the allegations, stating: “The allegations of the Petitioners that there has been a systemic failure as candidates have obtained unprecedented higher marks only in the top range of mark interval are misconceived and thus denied.”

The NTA acknowledged specific incidents under investigation, particularly in Bihar. These incidents, described as “criminal activities”, are being probed by law enforcement agencies. Initially investigated by the Bihar Police, the case was handed over to the Economic Offenses Unit (EOU) and has since been transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for further investigation at the central level.

As part of its immediate response, the NTA has withheld the results of 17 candidates suspected of being involved in fraudulent activities. These candidates were issued show-cause notices, pending the outcome of the investigation. 

Petitioners claimed that drastic inflation in NEET (UG) 2024 scores resulted from widespread fraud, including paper leaks, OMR tampering, and misuse of compensatory marks. The NTA refuted these claims, attributing the increased scores to a 22-25 per cent reduction in the syllabus and a 15 per cent rise in the number of candidates.

The NTA argued that the increase in marks was consistent across most ranges and did not significantly affect the relative performance of candidates. 

A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will today hear more than 40 pleas, including those filed by the NTA, seeking transfer of cases pending against it in various high courts on the NEET-UG row to the Supreme Court to avoid multiplicity of litigations.

The petitions seek the cancellation of the exam, a re-test, and an investigation into alleged malpractices during NEET-UG 2024. The bench has already received a status report from the CBI on the progress of the probe into these irregularities.

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court commenced hearing on Monday more than 30 pleas related to the controversy-ridden medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2024, including those alleging irregularities and malpractices in the May 5 test and seeking a direction to conduct it afresh.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is also hearing a separate plea of over 50 successful Gujarat-based NEET-UG candidates seeking a direction to restrain the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) from cancelling the controversy-ridden exam.

The lawyers representing a petitioner started the submissions, saying that they were seeking the cancellation of the exam on grounds such as paper leak, OMR sheet manipulation, impersonation and cheating.

Here are the live updates from the Supreme Court hearing on NEET: