NEET UG Controversy: Committee Formed To Recheck Result Of 1,563 Students

New Delhi: A four-member committee has been formed to recheck the results of 1,563 candidates who suffered ‘loss of time’ in the NEET UG 2024 exams.

The panel, set up by Union Ministry of Education and National Testing Agency (NTA), comprises a former UPSC Chairman and three other academicians.

They will look into the considerations raised about these students who were awarded grace marks due to “loss of exam time”.

The loss of time was reported from 6 centres — 2 in Chhattisgarh (Balod and Dantewada), 1 each in Meghalaya, Surat, Haryana’s Bahadurgarh and Chandigarh.

In a first, NTA compensated several candidates for the loss of exam time.

Petitions have been filed by groups of students in a number of high courts after NTA declared the NEET UG 2024 result on June 4.

One writ petition, filed by a NEET UG candidate in Delhi High Court, was heard before the Vacation Bench on June 7. The petitioner has challenged the final answer key of Question No. 29 in Physics as well as the compensatory time given to candidates at a few centres.

The matter will next be heard on June 12.

Another PIL has been filed before the Division Bench of Calcutta High Court, in which the petitioner has challenged the award of 718 or 719 marks to some candidates in NEET UG 2024. While hearing this matter on June 6, the High Court directed NTA to file an affidavit within a period of 10 days, disclosing how the reservation policy of the state as well as the central government has been followed in preparing the merit list. The matter has been listed for the next hearing after two weeks before the Regular Bench.

As many as 67 students got a perfect score (720/720), of whom 44 have made it to the No. 1 rank because they got an answer to a Physics question wrong, and received ‘grace marks’ for that.

Amid the controversy over so many students getting perfect score, NTA Director General Subodh Kumar reiterated there was no paper leak.

The NTA chief said that authorities concluded that the issue was limited to just six exam centres after a thorough analysis.

“We have analysed all the things transparently and declared the results,” Kumar said.

“Out of 4,750 exam centres, the problem was limited to six centres, and out of 24 lakh candidates, only 1,600 candidates were affected. The integrity of this exam throughout the country was not compromised,” he added.