Explained: NEET UG 2024 Controversy and Why Student are Protesting
By : Renju John Daniel
Update: 2024-06-13 19:21 GMT
Hyderabad: The National Testing Agency said that they will re-conduct National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Undergraduate (NEET UG) test for all the 1563 candidates on June 23.
This comes after aspirants and parents demanded a probe and retest alleging that the NEET paper was leaked at certain centres.
The NEET-UG, formerly All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT), is held once a year and it is the only entrance exam for students seeking admission to undergraduate medical courses in all medical institutions.
NEET UG exam has been conducted in 13 languages including English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
The NEET UG 2024 exam was conducted on May 5 where 24 lakh students appeared for the exam at 4,750 centres. The results was declared on June 4. Aspirants raised many issues like giving grace marks to 1563 candidates, over 60 students scoring perfect score and also they alleged of paper leak.
This year 67 students scored a perfect 720 comparatively higher than previous years. In 2023, two students scored 720, three in 2022, two in 2021. Six of the toppers had appeared for the exam at the same centre in Haryana, raising suspicion.
The NEET-UG, formerly All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT), is held once a year and it is the only entrance exam for students seeking admission to undergraduate medical courses in all medical institutions.
NEET UG exam has been conducted in 13 languages including English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
The NEET UG 2024 exam was conducted on May 5 where 24 lakh students appeared for the exam at 4,750 centres. The results was declared on June 4. Aspirants raised many issues like giving grace marks to 1563 candidates, over 60 students scoring perfect score and also they alleged of paper leak.
This year 67 students scored a perfect 720 comparatively higher than previous years. In 2023, two students scored 720, three in 2022, two in 2021. Six of the toppers had appeared for the exam at the same centre in Haryana, raising suspicion.
The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the decision to give grace marks to 1,563 candidates for admission to medical courses has been cancelled and a retest will be conducted on June 23.
The Supreme Court said it will not stay the counselling process for admissions. The Centre said that if 1,563 candidates do not wish to take up the retest then their earlier marks without the grace marks will be used for the results. The results of the re-test will be declared on June 30 and the counselling for admission to MBBS, BDS and other courses will start on July 6.
Three petitions were filed seeking to cancel the NEET UG 2024 test and conduct a retest due to alleged anomalies in grant of grace marks. A vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta heard the matter.
One of the petitioners, Alakh Pandey, CEO of Physics Wallah, claimed that NTA's decision to award grace marks was "arbitrary". He Reportedly collected representations from about 20,000 students, alleging that about 70-80 marks were awarded randomly as grace marks to at least 1,500 students.
Second petition was filed by members of SIO, Abdullah Mohammed Faiz and Dr. Shaik Roshan Mohiddin, for retest of NEET-UG 2024. They alleged statistical impossibility in marks as high as 718 and 719 out of 720.
Third petition was filed by NEET candidate Jaripiti Kartheek challenging the award of grace marks as compensation for lost time during the exam. He argued that the normalization formula should only extend to the number of unanswered questions in proportion to the loss of time, given equal mark weightage per question.