GUWAHATI: In response to the ongoing controversy surrounding NEET-UG 2024, the Centre informed the Supreme Court on Thursday, June 13, that it has decided to revoke the grace marks awarded to 1563 candidates. These students will now be notified of their actual scores without the grace marks and given the choice to participate in a re-test, as per the union government's counsel.
Advocate Kanu Agarwal, representing the union government, disclosed to a vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that the decision was made by a panel constituted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Wednesday. The move aims to alleviate concerns raised by students following discrepancies in the awarding of compensatory marks.
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Agarwal elaborated that the panel found the distribution of compensatory marks to be skewed, limiting them solely to unanswered questions due to time loss. "The recommendation by the Grievance Redressal Committee, based on the Disha Panchal case judgement, awarded compensatory marks but faced challenges," stated Agarwal.
He added that a subsequent committee convened on June 10, 11, and 12, and presented its findings to the court. As per the recommendations, the scorecards issued on June 4 to the affected 1563 candidates will be nullified.
These candidates will receive notifications of their revised scores, excluding the compensatory marks. Additionally, a re-examination option will be provided exclusively to these candidates.
For those opting out of the re-test, their original scores from the May 5 exam will stand. Senior advocate Naresh Kaushik, representing the NTA, assured the bench that details about the re-test will be released imminently, with a tentative date set for June 23.
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The results of the re-test are scheduled for publication before June 30, facilitating the commencement of counselling on July 6. Concluding the hearing, the bench resolved one petition contesting the grace marks issue while issuing notice on another petition alleging exam paper leaks.
The latter petition, filed by SIO members Abdullah Mohammed Faiz and Shaik Roshan Mohiddin, seeks the cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 results and a fresh examination. In a separate petition, NEET candidate Jaripiti Kartheek challenged the grace marks distribution, advocating for a reconsideration based on the normalisation formula.
The court dismissed the petition concerning grace marks but retained it for further deliberations on other grievances. Earlier, on June 11, the Supreme Court issued a notice on a pre-result petition demanding the cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 due to alleged paper leaks.
Although acknowledging the exam's compromised integrity, the court declined to halt the counselling process, seeking the NTA's response by July 8. Previously, on June 8, the NTA and Union Education Ministry had established a four-member committee to review the results of over 1500 candidates who received grace marks to compensate for time-related discrepancies during the NEET-UG 2024 exam.