Amid the National-Eligibility-cum-Entrance-Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) row, five petitioners seeking revaluation instead of re-NEET have filed a fresh petition with the Supreme Court. This came after the filing of several petitions which sought the re-conduct of the exam.
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation is already scrutinising the alleged irregularities by the National Testing Agency (NTA). The apex court is going to hear the early petitions regarding the irregularities on July 8.
The recent petition, jointly filed by five students represented by Supreme Court Advocate Tanvi Dubey, has suggested a re-evaluation of the OMR sheet instead of re-NEET.
“The alleged cancellation of the examination, at this stage, will have serious repercussions on the candidates who have thoroughly worked hard for the examination. Therefore, petitioners propose to suggest that in view of the rank inflation this year, which is clear from the chart below, it is advisable to have revaluation of the scores rather than having a re-neet for all the candidates,” the petition read.
According to Tanvi Dubey, the Supreme Court Advocate, a re-exam will completely disregard efforts put in by the students, who have worked hard throughout the year, a few students even opted to drop a year to prepare for the test. So, reevaluation is a plausible step.
“Only because of a few allegations of paper leaks and malpractice made by a handful, the result should not be completely scrapped. To prove the veracity of the allegation, the CBI inquiry is already pending. The students should not be made to suffer,” she said on re-NEET, during a conversation with EdexLive.
Speaking on the rank inflation and high number of toppers, she added, “This is an unprecedented number. In the history of the NEET exam, we’ve never seen 67 toppers, that too, with multiple toppers from the same centres. There might be errors in calculation or the system.”
Speaking in favour of the reevaluation, petitioner, Sudha Shenoy, Director of Scicon Career - NEET counsellor, complained while speaking to EdexLive, ”It's been two months since NEET and one month since the result publication. The students are getting frustrated as the issue is being dragged. Those who have worked hard should not be punished for the fraud someone else did.”
Additionally, they might not get the same marks as before. The risk is high, she explained.
The petitioner does not trust the NTA and was sceptical about the 24,000 students who were added through a separate window after one month of the actual registration deadline. Sudha demands a special scrutiny of these candidates suspecting they might be involved in the fraud.
She suspects that an NTA insider might be involved in the fraud and the CBI should find this out first. "If the culprits are left unpunished, the irregularities may never end even if the exam is re-conducted," Sudha adds.
Further, expressing her frustration with NTA she said, “NTA didn't inform us that grace marks were given even in the press note after the result. There was no mention of the grace marks. They did not admit it until students went to court citing the irregularities.’
“We don't know, nor did the court ask who these 1,563 students were, how many grace marks they have been awarded. The number is definitely more than that, it might be five times higher," said Sudha.
