Alakh Pandey, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EdTech firm Physics Wallah, has moved the Supreme Court (SC) against the alleged random award of grace marks by the National Testing Agency (NTA). This was stated in a report by PTI.
These grace marks were granted to over 1,500 candidates who took the controversy-ridden National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 for admissions to Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) and other courses.
Yesterday, Tuesday, June 11, the top court said the sanctity of the NEET-UG 2024 has been affected and sought responses from the Centre and the NTA on another plea seeking holding of the examination afresh on grounds of alleged question paper leak and other malpractices.
Lawyer J Sai Deepak, who appeared for Pandey, mentioned the plea for urgent listing on Tuesday before a vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah.
“We represent Alakh Pandey, who has collected signatures from about 20,000 students which clearly shows that close to about 70 to 80 marks have been awarded in grace marks randomly to at least 1,500 students. We are challenging the arbitrary award of grace marks,” lawyer Sai Deepak added.
The plea challenges the alleged award of grace marks on account of loss of time, apparently, due to several reasons. The petition has been listed for June 14.
The background
The NEET (UG) 2024 examination was held by the NTA on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates appeared for it. The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the evaluation of the answer sheets was completed earlier.
The plea said the intimation about the award of grace marks was done by the NTA as a reaction and not on its own, at the time of declaring the results.
“So much so this clarification came about only when queries were raised as to how 718/719 marks out of total 720 marks can be awarded when the same was not technically possible as per the marking scheme,” the plea said.
It demanded that the NTA must provide the details of the 1,563 candidates who were provided compensatory marks for the loss of time along with the original marks of such candidates, the grace marks granted to them and the revised marks they secured.
The plea filed on June 1 emanates from a Bihar police probe into the alleged leak of question paper meant for the exam.
As many as 67 students scored a perfect 720, unprecedented in NTA's history, with six from a centre in Haryana's Faridabad figuring in the list, which raised suspicions about irregularities.
It has been alleged that grace marks contributed to 67 students sharing the top rank.
The top court will now hear the pleas on July 8 when the summer vacation which commenced on May 20 comes to an end.
