New Delhi: The central government informed the Supreme Court that it has decided to cancel the grace marks awarded to 1,563 candidates who appeared for NEET UG 2024. These students will be informed about their scores — minus the grace marks — and will be given the option to appear for a retest, the counsel for the government told the top court.
The vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta was informed that the decision was taken by a high-powered committee constituted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is responsible for the conduct of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate).
However, students who had raised concerns about the conduct of the exam said the issue of grace marks would not make much difference to the overall result.
Surbhi Singh, who secured 650 marks in NEET UG 2024, told ThePrint, “The main issue was the paper leak which was surpassed by the coaching institutes. As many as 763 of 1,563 students are qualified for the exam. Even if they remove grace marks, that won’t make any difference for us.”
“A lot more people were affected by the mismanagement at exam centres. The actual figure is more than 1563. The main issue was about high inflation in marks and no one is asking questions about it. We are disappointed and anxious,” said Garvit Yadav, who secured 600 marks in NEET UG 2024.
During the hearing Thursday, the counsel for the NTA also informed the court that the notification for the retest will be issued the same day and the retest will likely be held on 23 June, followed by the declaration of results before 30 June so that there is no delay in counselling scheduled for 6 July.
The submissions were made in court during the hearing of a petition by a candidate who appeared for NEET UG 2024 and challenged the award of grace marks on the basis of the normalisation formula.
Advocate Kanu Agarwal, representing the Union government, told the court that the high-powered committee made the recommendation to cancel the award of grace marks to “allay the fears of students”.
The Supreme Court will hear another matter in connection with the NEET UG 2024 on 8 July.
Asked about the challenge to various aspects of the examination in court, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the media Thursday, “There is no corruption. In connection with the NEET examination, 24 lakh students appeared for it. A hearing in the Supreme Court is underway today and this issue is regarding around 1,500 students. The government is ready to give answers to the court. This specific issue is being taken into consideration and a committee of academicians has been formed.”
Pradhan added that the NTA conducts three major examinations — NEET, JEE and CUET — and action will be taken if any irregularities are found in the conduct of the NEET UG 2024.
More than 24 lakh candidates had appeared for the NEET UG 2024 exam held on 5 May cross 4,750 centres including 14 abroad. Results for the exams were declared on 4 June, 10 days before schedule.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: ‘I didn’t fail the exam, system failed me’—NEET 2024 students go back to preparing again